Swimming has a new wonder girl and her name is Danielle Titus.
This developing nine-year-old already has four national long-course records and this past week broke seven more short-course records, some of them her own.
Just think about the outstanding people that have gone before in local swimming. Of the dozens that have graced Barbados’ Aquatic Centre, by performance, Danielle is head and shoulders above them all.
When compared with the forerunners, the gifted primary school student must be a special case, a rare talent to be treasured. With her impressive performance at the recently held 2011 Cave Shepherd short-course national championships where she earned seven gold medals (seven records) and one silver in the 50 metre breaststroke from just eight starts, no one could have asked for better.
As one of the emerging young talents of the year, Danielle’s feat is even more outstanding when one dissects the manner in which the records were set. Not only did the A class student break the records by erasing a few seconds, she smashed them, time and again removing as many as six to eleven seconds from the old times.
This outstanding performance comes against the backdrop of an inexplicably disappointing showing at the Primary School meet in November.
In fact, neither coach nor parents knew what was in store at the 2011 Cave Shepherd Barbados short-course championships.
Dannielle’s first gold medal came in the 8 and Under 200 metres Individual Medley event. The four foot one inch lass had an entry time of 3 minutes 19.04 seconds but clocked an impressive 2 minutes 55.92 seconds and in the process broke the 2005 Amara Gibbs mark of 3 minutes 7.69 seconds.
The news even got better during the evening. The class three student then set a new record of 36.29 seconds in the 50 metre butterfly, erasing the old mark, 37.70 seconds, of her fiercest competitor, Ashley Weekes, set a few weeks ago.
By day two, one could see a trend developing as the quiet, unassuming swimmer clocked one minute 12.76 seconds in the 100 metres freestyle, beating her old mark of one minute 12.84 seconds set at the Chefette Stingrays meet last November.
From there it was the turn of the 200 metres freestyle record to fall.
She clocked a personal best of 2 minutes 36.58 seconds, erasing the 2006 Inayah Sherry mark of 2 minutes 42.83 seconds. Next was the 100 IM. Here she clocked one minute 21.26 seconds, erasing another of her old marks of one minute 23.75 seconds set in November. Her other records came in the 50 metres backstroke with a clocking of 36.35 seconds and the 50 metres freestyle, which was timed at 32.50 seconds.
And so as her record-breaking feats continued, her elated Cuban coach Tony Petrolanda is in no doubt that Danielle is one for the future.
Both the Cuban and assistant coach Ansil Inniss described her as an extremely gifted and talented athlete with supreme swimming technique.
He believes that her success was in the main due to her technique but credits the swimmer with being a focused and committed athlete who is “very strong for her age”.
A product of the Learn To Swim programme, Danielle’s success is as much an ad for the BASA project as it is to the inspiration of her proud parents, Andrea and Neil Titus.
The Cane Garden, St Thomas resident is committed to both sport and academics.
Proud father, Neil says: “Tiffany just asks what is it I have to do today and she just goes out and does it.”
“There is no doubt that she is a visual child,” her mother Andrea chimed in. “I show her the times she has to break and she just goes out there and performs.”
Following her dismal showing at the Primary School Meet what happened later was a complete surprise.
“I don’t know what the problem was. She just did not feel motivated. She just felt like she would not have done well and did not make the effort but to go into a final with a best time of 3 minutes 19 seconds and then to come out with a record of 2 minutes 55 seconds is nothing short of miraculous,” her mother added.
Inspired by her elder sister, Tiffany, who also holds a few national records, The People’s Cathedral primary school student told SUNSPORT, “I am very happy about my performance.”
“I can’t figure her out as yet”, said her mother, who takes her to the pool twice a day.
