Keagan Woolley stole the spotlight over the weekend at the Mailboxes Unlimited Winter Age Group Championships at the BASA pool at Saltus Grammar School.

Woolley, a promising ten-year-old from Sharks Swim Club, swam his way into the record books, smashing age-group records that had stood for more than a decade.

On Sunday, he lowered his own 100?metres record by 0.77 seconds in the ten-and-under age group when he clocked one minute 18.18 seconds in his final meet in the age category, while also making the Carifta qualifying time in the 11-12 age group.

One day earlier, Woolley broke an 11-year-old record in the 100 metres freestyle, touching the platform in 1:08.43, then beat the previous mark of 1:08.90 that had been held by Nick Thomson.

He started out the competition on fire on Friday night, lowering his 200 metres freestyle best time from 2:38.92 to 2:33.81. The time gave him his first qualifying standard for next year’s Carifta Games and also broke the age-group record.

Woolley finished the day with a record swim in the 50?metres backstroke, in which he clocked 36.34 seconds, lowering the mark of 36.75 that had stood up for 17 years, having been set by Roy-Allan Burch, who went on to become an Olympian.

Sharks team-mates Sophie Froud and Jesse Washington also continued their impressive form in the pool.

Froud, racing in the over-16 age group, reached the AA time for Carifta in the 200 metres freestyle. She followed this up by hitting her second qualifying time in the 100?metres freestyle.

Washington, competing in the 13-14 division, broke the 200?metres butterfly record previously held by Nick Patterson. He lowered the time from 2:27.69 to 2:19.18.

“A plethora of records and personal-best times were established over the three days with Sharks, Harbour and Dolphin swim clubs taking to the BASA pool,” Ben Smith, the national coach, said. “Each club saw their respective stars of the future put in encouraging performances.

“This meet was geared towards longer distances and gives swimmers the opportunity to compete in events that they may not normally do. There were a large amount of personal-best times swum and some very close races.”

Emma Harvey continued her domination in the pool for Harbour swim club, recording a time of 2:46.65 in the girls 11-12 200 butterfly, a national age-group record.

Brett Smith and Alex Pilgrim swam impressively in their respective events, finishing as joint top male in the 11-12 age group, which utilised different standards for rankings.

Peter Kiernan continued his fine start to the season with further time improvements, while in the female ten-and-under category, Maya Crockwell posted a time that enables her to join the Bermuda training team.

Dolphin coaches were pleased with their athletes, noting a marked development in technique displayed by their older swimmers, which showed that the hard work this term is paying off.

Results, page 14