Two of Bermuda’s medal-winners at the Carifta Games in Trinidad & Tobago are attempting to settle back into school life on Thursday morning after a whirlwind few days.

Tatiana Sousa flew back to the island late on Wednesday night after winning a silver medal in the javelin and will be heading to Warwick Academy, while Thomas Cechini, who won three bronze medals in the pool, returned to Mercersburg Academy in Pennsylvania.

Sousa has now had the chance to reflect on her achievement, which included a massive personal best.

“It was an emotional moment and a mix of excitement and disbelief as I threw nearly a six-metre PB on my first attempt,” Sousa said.

“I didn’t realise what I’d done until my coach said, ‘Go ask the official what your previous throw was’.”

This was Sousa’s second Carifta Games and the experience of her debut helped to motivate her.

“I competed at Carifta in Grenada as a newcomer last year and I wasn’t prepared for the level of talent last year,” Sousa said.

“I came back determined to win and leading up to the performance, I focused on building mental toughness and confidence.

“I trained hard for weeks before Carifta, seeing little progress at first. Still, I held high expectations for myself, as did my coach of reaching 40 metres, which I initially thought was out of reach.

“But I learnt that track and field demands discipline, and I trusted in my coach’s belief in me, ultimately surpassing that goal by 2.24 metres. I’d really like to thank Coach Bean, Coach Paynter and Mr Swan.”

Cechini will learn that even a hat-trick of medals does not make you exempt from school work. But the thrill of making it on to the podium and setting a national record in the 400m freestyle of 4min 07.78sec, breaking the mark of 4:08.02 set by Tyler Mazurek in 2016, will sustain him as he hits the books.

“It was a good meet and I had some pretty good swims, some PBs and I was excited to get to medal finally,” he said.

“I was a little more excited for the second and third bronze medals than the first one. I really wasn’t expecting a medal in the 200 free as we were all seeded within a second of each other, so it was a really close race.”

Cechini came within a hundredth of a second of winning silver in the 400 metres freestyle and is still slightly disappointed that he could not cling on to the runner-up spot as the field closed in.

“Going into the last 50 metres of the 400 free, I was ahead and hoping I could finish a little higher,” Cechini said.

“I wish I could have got the silver but I left everything in the pool on that race. I don’t think I could have kicked or pulled any harder.”

There will be a lot of change in Cechini’s life in the next few months as he moves on to Loyola University and he will not be competing at Carifta again after ageing out of the competition.

“I was really excited to end my last Carifta like this and I look forward to what other international competitions there are in my future,” he said.

“Carifta has always been exciting and it’s always good to see where you compared with other swimmers in your region, so I’m glad I was able to make a little more happen with my times in my last one.

“It’s also mast last year at Mercersburg and next year I am going to Loyola in Maryland. There are some really fast people there and I’m excited at the thought of going to train with the team. I’m looking forward to seeing what I can do.”