With the Carifta Games coming to a close, Thomas Cechini pulled off a remarkable hat-trick on the final night of swimming at the Carifta Games in Trinidad.

Cechini, who had already won bronze medals in the 1,500 and 200 metres freestyle, won his third in a fantastic finish to the 400 metres freestyle.

There was less than a second between the first four finishers at the end of eight lengths of competitive swimming, with Cechini touching the wall third in a time of 4min 07.78sec behind Liam Carrington (4:07.08), of Trinidad & Tobago.

Cechini, 17, was just a hundredth of a second behind Perna Fenandes of Aruba, who grabbed the silver medal.

The performance rounds off a fantastic four days for Cechini, who began the meet hoping for just one medal after a number of near misses.

After appearing on the podium for the first time, he told The Royal Gazette of his relief at finally achieving his goal in his last chance to compete at Carifta.

“It was actually a relief that I finally got a Carifta medal in my last one and I was really excited,” he said.

“Carifta has been so great and I’m always excited to go and spend time with the team. It’s a good team of people and we have a young team, so it’s great to be a part of it.”

The only other swimmer in action on the last night of Carifta action was Sylvia Lim, who finished a fine fifth in the 200 metres backstroke.