Bermuda’s swimming team enjoyed their most successful Carifta Games, finishing ninth overall out of 17 countries and bringing home a total of 22 medals from the meet in Aruba.

Six medals were won by the Island’s swimmers on the last night of competition on Friday with Emma Harvey winning a silver in the 50 metres freestyle and another silver in the 200 backstroke, while Maddie Moore won the gold in the 50 metres freestyle. Also winning silver was Shannon Hassell in the 200 backstroke after a surge in the third 50 moved her into medal contention.

Moore, competing in the same final as Hassell, came close but in the end had to settle for fourth place.

The girls’ 200 freestyle relay team also won a silver medal while Ashley Irby took the bronze in the 400 freestyle.

There were other close finishes for medals, with Irby placing fourth in the 11-12 girls 50 freestyle after recovering impressively from a slow start to get close to the bronze. Ethan Daley also just missed out on a medal in the 50 freestyle after racing to the lead at the 25-metre mark, only to have to settle for fifth.

Jesse Washington was the last of the Bermuda 50 freestylers to take to the pool on Friday night and was looking to swim a fast time, but the bad-start bug continued to bite as Washington was left behind at the start and was unable to recover the distance he had lost, finishing in fifth position. The 50 freestyle is an event with little room for error and shows the raw speed of the athletes.

In the end, the Bermuda team showed off seven gold medals, 11 silver and four bronze when they arrived home last night.

They also set a national record, 29 age-group records and two Carifta records as well as reaching a Youth Olympic Games qualifying time.

The team also achieved 56 personal-best times, with Harvey named as group champion for the 11-12 girls.