6 gold medals for Stephenson, 2 bronze each for Stephenson and Van Lange

Dec 20, 2011 Sports

Guyana’s Jessica Stephenson ended the year and the Blue Waters International Invitational Meet hosted by Marlins in Trinidad on a high by winning the overall female 15 and over high point trophy; swimming for her training Club of Marlins, Jessica attained the coveted trophy by winning 4 individual gold medals and 2 bronze.
Although Jessica was seeded to win her 3 favourite events of the 50, 100 and 200m breast, she added the 800m freestyle to her gold haul as well as bronze medals in the 400 and 200m freestyle: helping her team to win the overall Team Trophy, and she also swam to 2 gold relay medals.

Jessica Stephenson (centre) with her female 15 and over high point trophy along with 2nd place Lisette Texiera and 3rd placed Karina Brizuela both from the Emil Friedman Club of Venezuela.

The annual Invitational always attracts the best swimmers from the Caribbean and this year among the 392 registered swimmers were for the first time, over 30 entries from 3 Venezuelan clubs who gave all 5 of the Guyanese girls some very stiff competition.
Swimming for the combined Guyana team, Brittany Van Lange swam the most events with an impressive 10 splashes into the pool in the 13-14 age group winning 2 bronze in the highly competitive 50 and 100m freestyles, 4th in the 400 free and 200 back, 5th in the 800, 6th in the 200 free and two 8th place finals finishes in the 100 back and butterfly.
The youngest swimmer, Onika George in the 11-12 age raced to 6th in the 50 back and two 11th place finishes in the 100 back and 50 free and a PB in the 50m fly. The older girls Athena Gaskin and Noelle Smith performed to their best in the difficult 15 and over female category, with Athena narrowly missing the podium in the 200 free where she had to settle for 4th place and another top spot of 8th in the 200m IM.
Noelle who resides in Trinidad and trains with fellow Guyanese Maurice Faria again almost made it the podium by finishing 4th in the 50m breast and 5th in the 100m butterfly along with a 6th in the 100 breast and 50m fly, 7th in the 100 IM.