Shne smashes another swimming record

Seven swimmers from St Vincent’s Black Sands Swim Squad competed in Trinidad’s annual ASATT national invitational swim meet from December 9 to 12.

Shne, Alex and Jamie Joachim, Paige and Shane Cadogan, Dillon Gooding and Cruz Halbich were the representatives from Black Sands.{{more}}

St Vincent’s Shne Joachim led the way, swimming another record breaking race in the 50 metres breaststroke, winning the gold medal and smashing the Trinidad national record by, over one second. Shne finished the four days of racing with a total of four gold medals and one silver. Her younger brother Alex also swam himself to the medal podium, taking the number one spot with a gold medal in the 800 metres freestyle. A total of six personal best times were achieved by Alex over the four days of competing. The youngest Joachim, Jamie, demonstrated that she will soon be another of SVG’s swimming stars. Jamie didn’t medal at the event, but managed to swim a total of five personal best swims, dropping her times by over nine seconds in some of her events.

Siblings Paige and Shane Cadogan also put in personal best and medal winning swims. Paige swam a total of five personal best times and older brother Shane swam himself to the medal podium, bringing home one silver and one bronze medal in both the 50 and 100 metre breaststroke. 

King of long distance swimming, Cruz Halbich battled his way to a bronze medal in the 1,500 metre freestyle and managed a total of eight personal best swims. Dillon Gooding swam a total of six personal best times and demonstrated that he will be one of SVG’s medal contenders when competing in 2016.

Coach Kyle Dougan said “all the swimmers should feel satisfied with their performances in Trinidad. They competed well against some of the best swimmers in the Caribbean region and also against some visiting age group swimmers from the USA. St Vincent should feel proud of all of their efforts and performances.”

The last competition for the St Vincent and the Grenadines swimmers will be the Black Sands Invitational Sprint Meet, which will be held on December 18 and 19 at the Shrewsbury Aquatic Centre in Ratho Mill.