Willoughby, Titus lead swim charge

BARBADOS have made  a decent start at the Goodwill Swim Meet.
Led by record-setting performances by Kimberley Willoughby and Danielle Titus, the Bajans captured 33 medals to put themselves third in the standings following Friday’s opening night  at the Aquatic Centre.
The home side split their medals evenly  after securing 11 gold,  11 silver and 11 bronze,  to finish the night trailing front runners Suriname  (22, 14, 14) and Trinidad (8, 16, 13) who top the tables with 50 and 37 medals, respectively.
But the hosts still had lots to celebrate, with Willoughby and Titus accounting for four  of the eight records to fall in a highly-entertaining opening session in Wildey.
Competing in the Girls’ 9-10 division, Titus got  the ball rolling in the very first final setting a new mark of two minutes, 18.58 seconds in the  200 metre freestyle to break fellow Bajan Sariyah Sherry’s old record of 2:22.57.
It was just one of four gold medal performances on the night for Titus, who also won the 100 metre butterfly (1:15.09),  50 metre breaststroke (38.48) and 50 metre butterfly (33.39).
However, Willoughby wasn’t to be outdone  in the Girls’ 15-17 category after breaking records in each of her swims, which including the 200 metre freestyle (2:09.84), 50 metre breaststroke (36.25) and 50 metre butterfly (30.51).
Suriname accounted  for the other half of the marks to fall behind sensations Sajni and Shivani Singh.
Swimming in the  Girls’ 15-17 division,  Sajni set a new mark  of 1:09.78 in the 100-metre fly before returning  to spur her team  to a record-setting performance in the  400-metre freestyle  relay (4:21.11) in a race Barbados settled  for second.
The hosts were also beaten into second when Shivani led Suriname  to a new record of 4:27.63 in the Girls’ 11-12 equivalent. This was after the younger Singh had already broken the  100-metre freestyle record with a swim of 1:11.68.
The meet is scheduled to conclude tonight.  (JM)