Roman stars with nine records at Rodgers Meet

BY PAUL BURROWES Observer writer

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

SENSATIONAL Breanna Roman of Swimaz Aquatic broke nine of 14 individual meet records set at the four-day Walter Rodgers Age Group National Championships which ended at the National Stadium Pool on Sunday as Tornadoes Swim Club triumphed with 1,715 points.

Apparently saving her best for last, she swam AAAA age group times in breaking her own meet records in Girls 15 & Over 100m breaststroke and 50m freestyle.

"I am very happy with my performance," she said with a big smile, with eyes on at least three gold at the Carifta Swimming Championships in Bahamas on April 12-15.

She shattered her previous 100m breaststroke record of 1:17.14 for a new time of 1:15.62.

Roman even outperformed the boys, where Easton Prince of Y Speedos won the Boys 15 & Over 100m breaststroke in a time of 1:15.88, ahead of Antoine Young of Blue Seals, 1:15.96, and Xavier Boland of Tornadoes, 1:16.81.

"I am aiming to go 1:12," said Roman which would put on course for 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto where the A standard for women is 1:13.30. For the Olympic Games, however, she would have to go faster still where the qualification time is 1:08.49 and the Olympic selection time or B standard is 1:10.89.

In the 50m freestyle, Roman lowered her previous record of 28.45 to the new standard of 27.43 seconds. For the Pan American Games, 27.20 is the B standard and 26.40 the A standard.

Roman finished the championships with 11 gold and two silver medals to amass 113 points for Swimaz.

Angara Sinclair of Y Speedos and Sidrell Williams of Marlin topped Roman on points, accumulating 126 and 116 points respectively.

Competing in the Girls 11-12, Sinclair won 14 gold all from individual events and two silver medals which came in the 400m freestyle and 400m medley relays.

Sinclair was at her best in the 50m freestyle, clocking an AAAA time of 29.17 seconds, just outside the meet record of 29.00 and not far from the national age group record of 28.23 set by Alia Atkinson in 2001.

Williams, a rising star, clinched 11 gold, three silver, and a bronze. He tore through the water in the Boys 15 & Over 50m freestyle, clocking the AAAA time of 24.86 seconds, just outside the nine-year meet record of 24.50 seconds and within sight of the national age group record of 23.97 seconds established by Brad Hamilton in 2005.

Y Speedos scored 1,137 points to finish second, ahead of Marlin 1,105 points, Swimaz 783.5 points, Blue Seal 243 points, Singray of Cayman 233 points, Flying Fish Ambassadors 130.5, Camana Bay of Cayman 45, Dolphin 8, and Blue Marlin 7 points.

Relay records were broken by Marlin in the Girls 9-10 200m freestyle and Girls 15 & Over 400m medley and by Tornadoes in Girls 11-12 400m freestyle and 400m medley.