Day Four of the CCCAN Swimming championships saw Team Jamaica adding Four more medals to their tally One Gold , One Silver and Two Silver to have Eighteen medals Six Gold ,Four Silver and Eight Bronze medals.
Getting the Gold for the land of wood and water was Emily MacDonald in the girls 13-14 100 metre freestyle. She bounced back from illness on Day Three to win the freestyle title.

In the Championship final she recorded the only sub 28 seconds split at the halfway mark and then pulled away from the field to record a new personal best and CCCAN meet record of 57.95. It was also the fastest 100 metre freestyle time recorded by a girl at the Championship.

That lowered the the more than three decades old standard of 58.34 byCosta Rican Olympic Gold medallist Claudia Poll (1996,2000 and 2004). MacDonald also is closing in on the national age group record of 57.54 held by Olympian Janelle Atkinson (2000,2004). It was Poll who held off Atkinson to win the Bronze in the 400 metre freestyle at the 2000 Sydney Games . That fourth place position at the Olympics is the joint highest placing at the Games along with Alia Atkinson’s fourth place at the 2012 London Games.
Winning the Silver was Bermuda’s Logan Watson-Brown in 58.82 and the Bronze to Colombia’s Manuela Libreros Bolivar 1:01.38.

It also marked the regional Golden Double as she captured the same title at the CARIFTA Games in her hometown of Kingston in April . It marked the second time she is completing the double after doing so in the 11-12 age group in 2016
Regional record for the 100 metre freestyle
Date | Meet | Medal | Time |
March 2016 | CARIFTA | Gold | 1:02.02 split 29.40 |
July 2016 | CISC | Gold | 1:00.26 split 29.18 |
April 2017 | CARIFTA | Silver | 59.28 split 28.33 |
July 2017 | CCCAN | Gold | 58.83 split 27.89 |
April 2018 | CARIFTA | Gold | 57.99 split 28.17 |
July 2018
|
CCCAN | Gold | 57.95 split 27.79 |
Emily spoke to draftingthecaribbean about her performance after the race
“Going the 100 I was a bit nervous at first. The meet has not been great so far .In my 200 metre freestyle I got a cramp in my leg and ended up doing a bad time as I added 5 seconds to my personal best and I did not swim the Championship final of the 50 metre butterfly because of that injury and the 100 metre butterfly was not a good race overall.so going into this race I was very nervous as I did not know how I was going to perform because I had not done well so far but I was just going to try my best. That was my mindset heading into the final.I told myself I prepared for this meet and I have trained so hard for this and it does not make sense not swim my heart out. Going into the heats said I am going to just try and hopefully come in the top 8 fand hopefully seed first for the final. That is what I did and ended up doing a 58.70 .Going into the final I was going up again Logan Watson-Brown from Bermuda who I know is a great swimmer and I was even more nervous.I knew I wanted to get a Gold medal but was still not sure because of how I was performing. Before I stepped on the blocks I knew I had done all that I can to get this far and I know that I have done all I could possibly do to achieve a best time in this race so I was going to do what my coach told me to do which was best time.As I swam the race I remembered doing the splits in training and swimming the first 50 in a particular time and pushing hard on the last 25 metres into the wall which I did and recorded a personal best which I am very happy about and I got the Gold medal that I wanted”.

In the Boys 15-17 50 metre breaststroke Cameron Brown ended a decade old medal drought for Team Jamaica when he secured the Silver in a new personal best of 30.23. He tied Brandon Cheong for the medal while the Gold was won by The Bahamas Tyler Russell in 30.16. The last time Jamaica got a medal in the 15-17 age group in this event was in 2007 in El Salvador when age group star Brad Hamilton won Silver in 30.59.
Cameron gave his thoughts to draftingthecaribbean about the swim
“I knew it was going to be straight line line heading to the wall.I pushed to the very last second.I was suprised to see a new PB of 30.23 when I looked at the scoreboard”.

11-12 dynamo Morgan Cogle secured more precious metal at the Championship .She lowered her 100 metre freestyle from 1:03.11 to 1:02.59 to secure Bronze.The title went to Jillian Crooks of the Cayman Islands in a time of 1:01.72 and the Silver to Gabrielle Vickles of Trinidad and Tobago in 1:02.33.

In the 200 metre individual medley she ended a more than decade old drought when she won Bronze in 2:37.44.That medal winning swim puts her within sight of the age group record of 2:36.26 set by Annabella Lyn in 2012. Gold was won by the another 11-12 standout Zoe Anthony of Trinidad and Tobago in 2:32.91 and Silver to Crooks in 2:36.70.
Bronze was won by the 15-17 800 metre freestyle relay team of Annabella Lyn ,Gabrianna Banks, Bryanna Renuart and Naomi Eaton who stopped the clock in 9:07.22. Gold went to Aruba in 8:48.55 and the Silver to Honduras in 8:59.65.
The personal best tally moved from 28 to 47 at the end of Day Four
Name | Event | Personal Best | Previous Best |
Morgan Cogle | Girls 11-12 200 IM | 2:39.42 | 2:41.26 |
Morgan Cogle | Girls 11-12 200 IM | 2:37.44 | 2:39.42 |
Joshua Mair | Boys 11-12 200 IM | 2:37.13 | 2:41.26 |
Jaedon Lynch | Boys 11-12 200 IM | 2:39.06 | 2:40.93 |
Sabrina Lyn | Girls 13-14 200 IM | 2:37.06 | 2:44.98 |
Sabrina Lyn | Girls 13-14 200 IM | 2:35.25 | 2:37.06 |
Nathaniel Thomas | Boys 13-14 200 IM | 2:29.56 | 2:29.83 |
Joshua Mair | Boys 11-12 50 metre breaststroke | 36.52 | 37.23 |
Joshua Mair | Boys 11-12 50 metre breaststroke | 36.14 | 36.52 |
Jaedon Lynch | Boys 11-12 50 metre breaststroke | 36.23 | 36.45 |
Sean-Douglas Gooden | Boys 15-17 50 metre breaststroke | 31.35 | 31.43 |
Cameron Brown | Boys 15-17 50 metre breaststroke | 30.23 | 30.64 |
Morgan Cogle | Girls 11-12 100 metre freestyle | 1:03.10 | 1:03.11 |
Morgan Cogle | Girls 11-12 100 metre freestyle | 1:02.59 | 1:03.10 |
Adrian Balfour | Boys 11-12 100 metre freestyle | 1:02.42 | 1:03.28 |
Emily MacDonald | Girls 13-14 100 metre freestyle | 57.95 | 57.99 |
Nathaniel Thomas | Boys 13-14 100 metre freestyle | 56.12 | 56.95 |
Daniel Mair | Boys 11-12 100 metre freestyle | 1:02.60 | 1:06.15 |
Jaedon Lynch | Boys 11-12 200 metre butterfly | 2:46.50 | 2:51.11 |
Jordane Payne | Boys 15-17 200 metre butterfly | 2:17.58 | 2:18.43 |