Graham Chatoor of Marlins and Kristin Julien of Arieos Aquatechs splashed to new national records on Thursday on Day One of the National Open Short Course Championships at the National Aquatic Centre in Balmain Couva.
Graham Chatoor Courtesy of ASATT
Chatoor (G) won gold in fine style beating his nearest rival in the male 800m freestyle by over a minute in his record breaking swim of 8:44.93. He eclipsed the open and 15-17 record of Joshua Romany of 8:46.26. With this swim, he continues his success in the long distance events as he also won the Subway Maracas Open Water Classic 5000m event in September and was a 4th place finisher in the 1500m freestyle in the Caribbean Island Swimming Championships (CISC) in June/July.
His younger sibling Jada was not to be outdone as the 13-14 swimmer won in a field of nine in female equivalent (800m free) in a time of 9:25.61. Chatoor (J) won the gold in the CISC in the 13-14 800m freestyle. She was also the first female finisher in the 2650m Maracas Open Race. The long distance talent seems to be a fine mix of hard work and genetics, as Jada and Graham are the children of Camille Richards-Chatoor, who still remains the first and only female to be the overall winner at our Annual Open Water Swim – a feat she repeated in 1985 and 1986.
Kristin Julien Courtesy of ASATT
Julien set the second open record of the competition touching the wall in 29.63 seconds in the female 50 metre backstroke preliminary, emerging as the fastest qualifier for Friday’s final. In the process she erased Sharntelle Mc Lean’s 2012 record of 29.71 seconds. Julien has won multiple gold medals at regional meets, and represented T & T in the past in meets such as the World Junior Championships and the Commonwealth Youth Games.
The meet continues today (Friday) with the finals of Thursday’s events, together with Masters events, 1500m freestyle and the newly added 4 x 100m freestyle events. The meet’s opening ceremony starts at 6:00pm today.