By Rawle Toney at Albion

North Georgetown District began its quest for glory at this year’s National Schools Championships when it carted off the swimming title at Albion, Berbice yesterday.
North Georgetown, who retained the title by virtue of their win, amassed 373 points.

Noelle Smith

East Georgetown, 216 points, was second followed by powerhouses Upper  Demerara/Kwakwani, 209 points.
North Georgetown District was led by its core of national swimming champions in Sarah King, Onika George, Brittany van Lange, Anthena Foo, Athena Gaskin, Serrano Gonzales and Noelle Smith.
Smith had a flawless day in the pool swimming to gold in the girls’ U20 100 metres butterfly event which she won in 51.83 seconds with District’s 12 Ashley Layne and District No. 7’s Alira Rupert, second and third respectively. Smith, who represented Guyana at this year’s world swimming championship in Italy, then blew out the competition in the 50 metres freestyle event.

Upper Demerara’s Danetta Duggan was second and Jeffery Michelle of District 7, third. Smith would complete her U20 champion girl swim with a win in the 50 metres butterfly event ahead of Steffi DeNobrega of District No.12 and Lyn Cornelius of Upper Demerara.

Athena Gaskin

Gaskin, like her North Georgetown team-mate, also swam unbeaten in the pool in the Under-20 division notching up her wins in the 50 metres breaststroke (29.62 seconds) and the girls 100m freestyle event.
DeNobrega and Cornelius finishing second and third respectively in the 50 metres breaststroke event while
Duggan of Upper Demerara and Michelle were second and third respectively in the 100m freestyle event.
Meanwhile, Gonsalves dominated the boys’U20 events winning all of his races.

He won the 100 metres butterfly event in 50.34 seconds with District 10’s Omali Dare, second (51.48s) and Xavier Troyer of District No. 13 third.
His other two wins came in the 100-metre and 50-metre  backstroke events.

Van Lange, along with Travis Henry, dominated the U14 girls and boys’ categories winning the 50 and 100 metres freestyle and the 50-metre backstroke events respectively.
Onika George was the only other North Georgetown swimmer to finish the day unchallenged.
She won the 50-metre girls’ U12 backstroke and the 50 and 100-meter freestyle races.

North Georgetown won all but the boys’ 200-metre freestyle relay event which was won by the Essequibo Islands, followed by South Georgetown second and Upper Demerara third.
At Tuesday’s colourful opening ceremony, Minister of Sport, Dr. Frank Anthony, promised that at next year’s championships, the swimming version will be held at Guyana’s Olympic-size swimming pool at Lilliendaal.

The pool, he assured, will be completed early next year.