Junior breaststroke specialist Jessica Stephenson collected Guyana’s first gold medal of the CARIFTA Games Swimming Championships when she won the girls 15 – 17 200m breaststroke event late Saturday in Barbados.
Stephenson upset the 15-17 girls 200 breaststroke field with a time of 2:43.32, touching the pads ahead of Breanna Roman of Jamaica (2:45.89) and Rejan Chin of T&T (2:46.73).
Seeded first in the event and coming off an entry time of 2:46.88s, Stephenson claimed a rare gold medal for Guyana.
The Trinidad-based Guyanese continued her quest for more medals yesterday when she participated in the 200m freestyle event.
Stephenson finished in a time of 2:26.95s coming off an entry time of 2:23.52s.
This is the third year that Stephenson has represented Guyana at the event.
She has represented Guyana in 2008 (11-12 age-group) and 2010 (13-14) for a total of five medals.
Stephenson is one half of the two-member team, comprising herself and locally based swimming sensation Britany van Lange.
The pair is accompanied by coach/manager Stephanie Fraser.
Swimming the preliminary heats of the girls 13-14 200m freestyle event yesterday van Lange clocked 2:15.88s to win her heat.
She was ranked second for the final which was scheduled to be completed last night.
On Saturday van Lange finished fifth in the girls’ 13-14 800m freestyle event after having been seeded 17th in the race off her entry time of 10:15.22s.
In the 50m backstroke, van Lange entered with a seed time of 35.66 and finished the race in 36.52 seconds, placing 17th.
This is van Lange’s first time at the championships. She is the only local swimmer to achieve the qualifying times.
The championships continue today with Stephenson participating in the 50m backstroke while van Lange is scheduled to contest the 100m freestyle event.
The championships are expected to end tomorrow when Stephenson will end her participation by competing in the 100m breaststroke.
Van Lange will polish things off by competing in the 400m and 50m freestyle events.
