Relay strategy delivers title for Campion
CAMPION COLLEGE’S swimming coach Gillian Millwood said switching the focus from individual events to the relays at Friday’s Mayberry Schools Swimming Championships helped them outscore the more fancied Wolmer’s Boys team to win their sixth successive title at the National Aquatic Centre.
Campion topped the combined scores with 891.50 points, ahead of Immaculate on 689 and Wolmer’s Boys on 454, but Millwood admitted that prior to the start of the championships, she had almost already conceded victory to Wolmer’s.
EMPHASIS ON THE RELAYS
However, she noted that the victory came as a result of her decision to place emphasis on the relays and not on individual events as they had done leading up to the championships.
“Coming into the meet, I must say I was very concerned, knowing the potential of the Wolmer’s team. I was anticipating that Campion would be second this year,”she said.
“In the previous two meets, I had a lot of athletes doing four or five events and less relays, but this meet, we focused a lot on the relays, and it worked. So my strategy worked for a sixth year in a row, and I am particularly proud of the guys,”Millwood said.
Campion won 28 of the 80 events on show, including 10 of the 18 relays, with the boys amassing 556.50 points and the girls, 335 points.
The Hope Road school had a number of outstanding performances from swimmers like Joshua Mair (Under-12 boys) and Akeem Alleyne (15-16 boys), who won three events, while Naomi Eaton (15-16 girls), Sabrina Lyn and Nathaniel Thomas all had two wins each.
Both of Thomas’ wins were done in record times as he posted 27:28s for the boys’ 1314 butterfly and 25:77s for the 50-metre freestyle.
However, the star of the meet was Immaculate’s Zaneta Alvaranga, who had records in all four individual events she contested.
The national youth swimmer won the Under-12 200-metre freestyle (2:19.16), the 50-metre freestyle (25.77), the 50-metre breaststroke (36.54) and the 50metre butterfly (28.97), all in a new mark. Another outstanding performance came from Wolmers’ Britney Williams in the girls 15-16 category.
Williams, who is coming off a high from the Carifta Games, had four wins from four events. The young swimmer won the 50m, 100m and 20m freestyle events, as well as the 50m backstroke.