Unbeatable!
Kareem Thompson competes on the way to winning heat four in the boys’ 12 and under 100 metres freestyle at the 2016 Mayberry Preparatory and Primary Schools Swimming Championships at the National Aquatics Centre, Independence Park, on Saturday.
TEN-YEAR-OLD ZANETA Alvaranga, the toast of at last Saturday’s 18th annual Mayberry Investments Primary and Prep Schools Swimming Championships, says she will be looking to remain unbeaten for the rest of her Prep school career and continue her rich vein of form at the high school level.
The decades-old meet serves as one of the traditional development events for upcoming local swimmers.
The St Hugh’s Prep swim star has been unbeaten for the last three years, while emphatically smashing a record per event. On this occasion, she copped four individual meet records and anchored her school to a relay record at the National Aquatics Centre.
MEET RECORDS
Her meet records include the 50m backstroke (girls 9-10) in 35:19 seconds; the 50m freestyle in 29:23; the girls 12 and under 100m freestyle in 1:07.08; and the 50m butterfly for girls 9-10 in 31.97.
She also anchored her school to a new 200m freestyle relay record of two minutes, 33:71 seconds, for girls 9-10.
“I feel good leaving with four individual medals and helping my team win a relay medal in all records. I didn’t get to train as much as I would have wanted to because of GSAT, but I feel good that I could finish victorious,” she told The Gleaner.
Alvaranga is hoping to move on to the high school of her choice, Immaculate Conception High and her father/coach, Rory Alvaranga, says Immaculate will be the best choice, not only based on its successful swimming programme, but “excellent Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) and Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) grades”.
“If you give Zaneta a choice of swimming or school, she is going to choose the water,” he added of what he believes will be a natural choice for her to pursue eventually as a career.
St Hugh’s Prep finished in fifth place on 109 points, with young Alvaranga earning the high point trophy award for the girls 9-10 age group after amassing 36 points.
Zaneta Alvaranga and father Rory.