JAMAICA HAULS IN 4 MORE MEDAL AT CCCAN AS TWO RECORDS FALL

Twelve year old Alia Atkinson, Janelle Atkinson and Angela Chuck all struck Gold in final on Day 3 of the Central American and Caribbean Swimming Championships in progress at the Olympic Park in Santo Domingo. Leading the Gold rush for Jamaica, Angela Chuck won the first event of the evening to take the 18 and Over 200 M Backstroke with a time of 2:28.53.

Alia Atkinson won her Gold just 4 events later when she swam 28.23 to lower the Jamaican National 11-12 50 M Freestyle age group record she set in the preliminaries.

In the 18 and Over 200 M Freestyle, Janelle Atkinson was fastest off the blocks and never lost the lead to win the Gold in a CCCAN record time of 2:02.57. Swimming in the same event, Angela Chuck turned at the 150 M mark in 5^th position but had a strong finish to take the Bronze in 2:10.58 just .48 second behind Puerto Rico’s Mojica Solimar who took the Silver (2:10.10)

Allison Bardowell and Dominic Lee both achieved a significant milestone for Jamaica as they both qualified for the 400 M Individual Medley, the first time in many years that a Jamaican has done so at the CCCAN level. Allison Bardowell could not improve on her personal best time of 5:25.83 swum in the heats, and placed eight in 5:33.60. After swimming a personal best time of 5:05.79 in the heats, Dominic Lee swam 5:01.37 in what would have been another personal best and National Age Group record but was disqualified for a non-continuous turn on the backstroke leg.

The session was marred by a freak injury to Trinidad’s sensational swimmer, Nicholas Bovell. While entering the swim down pool after outclassing the field in the 13-14 50 M Freestyle (24.28), Bovell slipped and injured his right shoulder when it got trapped in the pool gutter.

Mexico, which has 103 swimmers, presently lead the points standing with 525.50 points. Jamaica, with only 14 swimmers are in 8^th place with 86.50:

Eighteen CCCAN meet records have fallen.

Jamaica’s now has seven medals - 4 Gold 3 Bronze

Team  Rankings Through Event 52

    PL  ID     TEAM NAME                ABBREV.       POINTS
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

      1     504      MEXICO                                        MEX              525.50     

      2     506      VENEZUELA                                 VEN               439.50     

      3     503      COLOMBIA                                  COL               167.50     

      4     502      PUERTO RICO                             PUR               138.50     

      5     516      TRINIDAD Y TOBAGO               TYT               128.00        

      6     505      REPUBLICA DOMINICANA      DOM               96.00        

      7     509      CUBA                                              CUB                89.00        

      8     501      JAMAICA                                       JAM               86.50     

      9     511      GUATEMALA                                GUA               79.00        

     10     512      COSTA RICA                                CRC               77.00        

     11     513      BARBADOS                                  BAR               66.00        

     12     508      HONDURAS                                  HON              50.00       

     13     510      EL SALVADOR                             ESA               46.00        

     14     507      PANAMA                                        PAN              31.00        

     15     514      ANTILLAS HOLANDESAS          AHO             24.00        

     16     515      ISLAS VIRGENES                         ISV               17.50     

     17     518      SURINAM                                       SUR             11.00        

     18     520      BERMUDAS                                   BER               7.00        

     19     519      NICARAGUA                                  NIC                4.00        

     20     521      ARUBA                                            ARU               2.00        

     21     517      GRENADA                                      GRA               1.00        

Day 4 preliminary heat start Friday at 09:00 local (08:00 Jamaican time)

July 5, 2001