Taylor strikes gold for The Bahamas at CAC GamesSports

Simba FrenchSend an emailJune 29, 2023 100 2 minute readFacebookTwitterLinkedInShare via Email

Lamar Taylor struck gold first for The Bahamas at the 24th Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games last night, winning the men’s 50 meters (m) backstroke at the Complejo Acuatico Merliot in San Salvador, El Salvador.

Taylor, who swam out of the coveted lane four, put on a show as he slithered his way to the wall first in a new personal best and national record time of 25.08 seconds. The Grand Bahamian also achieved the ‘A’ cut of 25.16 seconds for the 2023 World Aquatics Championships, set for July 14-30 in Fukuoka, Japan.

Earlier in the morning, Taylor was the first to touch the wall in heat two when he swam one length of the pool in a time of 25.47 seconds, which was the fastest time in the preliminaries. He was two hundredths of a second off the national record at that time – 25.45 seconds.

Taylor, who just celebrated his 20th birthday eight days ago, finished ahead the CAC Games record holder in that event, Trinidad and Tobago’s Dylan Carter who was second in 25.55 seconds. Carter’s record of 25.01 seconds, set back in 2018, still stands.

Placing third in that race was Mexico’s Diego Camacho who swam 25.68 seconds.

Bahamian teen swimmer Rhanishka Gibbs was also in action yesterday and finished sixth in the 50m breaststroke ‘A’ final. Gibbs swam out of lane one. The 17-year-old, who had a busy year in the pool, clocked a time of 33.77 seconds. Gibbs and the other seven competitors had to wait two days to swim the final after inclement weather interrupted the competition on Monday night.

Venezuelan Mercedes Toledo won the race when she sprinted across the pool in 31.86 seconds. Mexico’s Byanca Rodriguez sported a time of 31.92 seconds to finish second and Colombia’s Stefania Gomez swam 32.11 seconds to finish third.

Gibbs has two more individual races remaining – the 50m butterfly and the 50m freestyle. Both races take place today.

Gibbs and Taylor were not the only Bahamian swimmers in the water yesterday as siblings Luke-Kennedy Thompson and Zaylie-Elizabeth Thompson were in action.

Luke-Kennedy Thompson was in action in the 200m freestyle ‘B’ final and clocked 1:58.65 to place fifth. He qualified for ‘B’ final in the 200m free when he clocked 1:58.35 in heat three of that event, finishing fifth in that heat.

The 21-year-old swam in the ‘B’ final of the 50m breast on Tuesday night. Thompson placed sixth in that race when he touched the wall in 29.61 seconds. Winning that race was Aruba’s Braynsly Dirksz who clocked 29.20 seconds.

Zaylie-Elizabeth Thompson was in the pool in the 200m individual medley (IM), swimming in heat one. She clocked 2:28.38 to finish fifth in her heat. She had the 12th fastest time overall and qualified for the ‘B’ final, but did not swim in the ‘B’ final last night.

Joshua Higgins was set to take part in sailing yesterday, but like on Tuesday, his race was postponed.

On Monday, he was seventh in his first race, scoring seven points. In the second race, he placed fifth, scoring five points. He has 12 points after two races and sits in fifth out of 16 competitors.

The CAC Games is a quadrennial multi-sport event for athletes in the Caribbean and Central America. It will wrap up on July 8.

There are 51 athletes representing The Bahamas in 11 sporting disciplines – athletics, swimming, water polo, men’s basketball, women’s softball, boxing, equestrian, archery, beach soccer, judo and triathlon.

There are 20 officials for Team Bahamas.