JUNIOR BAJAN SWIMMER McKayla Treasure narrowly defeated famed United States National Masters champion swimmer and former professional triathlete Eney Jones to win the 1.5K swim at the fourth Barbados Open Water Festival on November 7 at Carlisle Bay.
Treasure finished the event in a time of 20 minutes 15.23 seconds to beat the highly rated field before the evergreen Jones returned a day later to take the 5K event ahead of another junior swimmer, Rebecca Lashley.
It was the cap to a great overall showing from Lashley, who also placed third in the 1.5K swim.
She wasn’t the only one who enjoyed an outstanding weekend as fellow local juniors Danielle Clarke (fourth), Danielle Treasure (fifth), Aza Dunwoody (sixth) and Keilani Talma (seventh) all placed within the top ten of the 1.5K event.
And this was after Luis Sebastian Weeks (second), Kobi Talma (third), Jason Wilson, Nkosi Dunwoody, Akeem Nurse and McCallum Clarke also had high finishes in the men’s 5K.
In the 5K, Barbadians Kristiana Ram, Sabrina Pierce, Eric Lashley and Cody Oneal turned in solid performances to place in their age groups.
Some 300 swimmers competed in both races, which also featured a “Just For Fun” charity swim for a novice swimmers.
This year’s edition attracted participants from the US, UK, Canada, Netherlands, Spain, France, Belgium and other Caribbean territories.
Co-director of the event, Kristina Evelyn, said the organisers received extremely positive feedback and were already planning the 2016 event, which is slated to feature a 10K race for the first time. (JM)
