1. Introduction

CARIFTA swimming 2004 is over but the feeling lingers. Although we never won there were some exhilarating and stupendous performances that left us breathless and wanting more.We were privileged to have witnessed the tenacity and indomitable spirit of which champions are made. Buoyed by the enthusiastic support and feverish cheering of the 20 strong Jamaican contingents that journeyed the 300 miles from home and aided and abetted by our Jamaican countrymen and women living in the Bahamas our swimmers fought a good fight.

When the last whistle was blown and the last chant subsided Jamaica placed a commendable 4^th of the 13 participating teams by amassing 503 points. The final points standing were as follows:

Place	Team	Points
1	Trinidad & Tobago	591
2	Cayman	550
3	Bahamas	536.5
4	Jamaica	503
5	Antilles Guyane Francaise	470
6	Barbados	351
7	Netherlands Antilles	299.5
8	Suriname	253
9	US Virgin Island	148.5
10	Grenada	105
11	Aruba	88
12	St. Lucia	80.5

Significantly the men’s team placed first among the male teams and in the process outscored the second placed team Barbados by 71 points while the female team placed 5^th among their counterparts. Brad Hamilton was the outstanding swimmer for Jamaica winning 7 Gold, 1 Silver and 1 Bronze Medals while establishing 5 new National Age Group Records and 2 new CARIFTA Records (100 FREE, 200 FREE, 400 FREE, 100 FLY & 400 IM)

2. Jamaica’s Medal Count

	Boys Individual	Boys Relay	Girls Individual	Girls Relay	Total
Entries	68	9	48	6	131
Medals	19	8	3	2	32
Gold	7	1	2	0	10
Silver	4	3	0	2	9
Bronze	8	4	1	0	13
11-12	4	2	0	0	6
13-14	9	3	3	2	17
15-17	6	3	0	0	9

Of the 32 medals won the boys’ team accounted for 27 (or 84%) compared to the girls’ 5. Of particular note was the dearth of medals won by the girls 11-12 and 15-17 age groups. Throughout the meet it was patently clear that our sole female entrant in the 11-12 age group was outclassed notwithstanding her achieving PBs in all her races. The 15-17 girls feared better by virtue of securing many final placings.

3. Medal Winners

Name	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
Brad Hamilton	6	1	0	7
Renee Wright	2	0	1	3
Dominic Lee	1	1	1	3
Todd Johnson	0	1	1	2
Ramon Walton	0	1	1	2
Travis Forte	0	0	1	1
Matthew Hilton	0	0	1	1
Jonathan Wong	0	0	1	1
Andre Smith	0	0	1	1
Brandon Loshusan	0	0	1	1
Total Individual	9	4	9	22
Relays	1	5	4	10

Notably, the team featured in 86 Individual finals or 74% of the 116 events entered. Significantly only one(1) girl medalled.

4. Finals Made

Names	Entries	Finals	DQ
Allison Bardowell	6	1	0
Taryn Bridgewater	6	0	1
Tamari Farquharson	7	7	0
Travis Forte	6	4	0
Alford Green	2	1	0	Time final
Brad Hamilton	9	8	0
Matthew Hamilton	5	3	0
Rhoan Johnson	3	2	0
Todd Johnson	2	2	0
Audette Lawrence	1	1	0	Time final
Dominic Lee	6	6	0
Brandon Loshusan	6	6	0
Lemone Lowe	6	3	0
Gillian Millwood	5	3	0
Leachim Palmer