Van Lange shatters three records at Goodwill

– wins six of Guyana’s 15 medals at the event; Smith cops five

Fourteen-year-old swimming sensation Britany Van Lange, who just fell short of a CARIFTA medal earlier this year, cleaned up at the next best competition, the Goodwill Games which were held over the weekend at the Centre of Excellence, Macoya in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T).

Van Lange, who had won a hand full of gold medals at the event in the past two years, continued to dominate at the regional developmental event, smashing three records in her pet events and copping a total of six medals. Britany retained her 100m freestyle title with a dominant win in new record time 1:01.46, to beat Surinamese duo Gabrielle Breidel (1:03.87) and Kiran Singh (1:04.08).

Van Lange, who recently competed at the FINA World Championships in Shanghai China, clocked her personal best time to shatter the 50m freestyle record. The Dorado Swim club athlete clocked 28.13 to edge Breidel and T&T’s Johnnya Ferdinand (29.58).

Van Lange’s other record breaking gold medal was in the 200m freestyle, where she eclipsed Surinamese CARIFTA swimmer Chandel Domaso’s five-year-old record (2:19.67) by clocking 2:12.97.

Second place finisher Singh clocked 2:18.64, while T&T‘s Chelsea Downes took third in 2:22.15.

Van Lange also clocked a personal record (33.81) in the 50m backstroke which was good enough for second place. Her other silver medal came in the 200m Individual Medley (IM), where she recorded another personal best of 2:39.48. Van Lange also copped bronze in the 100m breaststroke, while Soroya Simmons, another multiple medallist at Goodwill this year, came second.

Apart from her 100m backstroke, Simmons copped bronze in the 50m backstroke.

Noelle Smith, who now resides in T&T, captured gold in the Girls’ 15-17 100m breaststroke after clocking 1:23.57 to beat Ruby-Ann Redjopawiro (1:24.74) of Suriname and Colleen Parag (1:25.00) of T&T. Smith also captured a pair of silver medals in the Girls’ 15-17 100m and 50m butterfly events, where she clocked 1:13.58 and 32.36 respectively. Smith also captured a pair of bronze medals in the 50m breaststroke (38.09) and 200m IM (2:45.97).

Athena Gaskin (2:21.81) captured her lone bronze medal in the Girls’ 15-17 200m freestyle after barely missing out on the podium in the 50m freestyle, while Ronaldo Rodrigues captured bronze in the 50m freestyle. Team manger Jean LaRose told Guyana Times International Sport that the team gave a creditable overall performance.

Although Guyana finished last in the overall points standards, La Rose said that it was every commendable that team Guyana copped 15 medals, which was more than double what they have won in recent years. Team Guyana’s credible performance was also validated by the fact that there were only eight swimmers on the team, according to LaRose.