Raine Paulson-Andrews and Alia Atkinson Qualify for Finals

In what was expected to be a slow morning for Jamaica at the Central American and Caribbean Swimming Championships in Santo Domingo, two swimmers qualified for the finals which start this evening at 5:00 (EDT). In the 13-14 100 M Butterfly heats, Raine Paulson-Andrews looked relaxed for the first time in the competition and swam just outside her personal best time to qualify for the final in 7^th with a time of 1:09.73. Allison Bardowell swam a personal best time of 1:09.74 but had to swim-off for the 8^th place with Priscilla Zacarias from the Dominican Republic.  Prescilla Zacarias won the swim-off to qualify for the final.

Alia Atkinson who has already won two medals, had another excellent performance when she knocked 5 seconds off her personal best time in the 11-12 200 M Individual Medley. Entering the event seeded in 11^th, Alia swam 2:40.44 to qualify for the final with the 5^th fastest time. Mexico’s Elizabeth Hernandez leads the finalists with a time of 2:33.54.

The Female 18 and Over 800 M Freestyle and 200 M Individual Medley both went to finals as they had only eight entries. Janelle Atkinson has the fastest seedtime in the 800 Freestyle while Angela Chuck’s time of 2:30.00 in the 200 M Individual Medley is second.

Todd Johnson improved his personal best time by more than 2 seconds when he swam 2:07.42 in the preliminary heats of the Male 13-14 200 M Freestyle.  Johnson swam an intelligent race, holding his planned splits, but finished 10^th (2^nd alternate) just .2 seconds behind Alejandro Murillo (Honduras) who finished 8^th. Mexico’s Andres Jumenez swam the fastest time (2:03.22) to qualify for the final in lane 4.

Results of swimmers not making the finals:
13-14 100 M Butterfly                             Dominic Lee 1:03.69                   13^th (personal best)


11-12 200 M Individual Medley                 Travis Forte 2:47.35                   18^th
                                                             John-Claude Wright 2:52.71        19^th

15-17 200 M Individual Medley                 Andrew Saunders 2:22.33           11^th (personal best)


15-17 100 M Butterfly                             Andrew Saunders  1:02.29          14^th
                                                            Jevon Atkinson 1:05.50               17^th

Finals starts at 17:00 local (16:00 Jamaican time)

July 6, 2001