- Simba French
- 3 hrs ago
- 0
For the first time in six years, a swimmer has emerged as The Nassau Guardian’s Junior Female Athlete of the Year, beating a fantastic athlete who captured the hearts of Bahamians everywhere, winning three medals, including two gold, at the 50th Oaktree CARIFTA Games in Nassau, The Bahamas.
Saleste Gibson was special herself, swimming in 13 races in total, nine individual, in the 11-12 girls category at the CARIFTA Aquatics Championships in Willemstad, Curaçao. In the individual races, she won seven gold medals, one silver and had one fourth place finish.
Gibson scored a whopping 75 points, swimming away with the high point award in the 11-12 girls division, and helping Team Bahamas win a fifth straight CARIFTA swimming title and seventh in the last eight CARIFTA meets. Gibson was the one being chased for all but two of her seven individual races at CARIFTA, and also dominated in her category at the Bahamas Aquatics Federation’s REV National Championships.
Gibson secured 22 points in the voting process for The Nassau Guardian’s Junior Female Athlete of the Year honor, barely getting past track and field star Jamiah Nabbie who finished with 21 points. Swimmer Rhanishka Gibbs collected 18 points for third and basketball player Denika Lightbourne and javelin thrower Kamera Strachan finished tied for fourth with 17 points apiece.
Nabbie was certainly the darling for The Bahamas at the 50th Oaktree CARIFTA Games on her home track.
Nabbie won gold in the under-17 girls 100m, matching a personal best time of 11.67 seconds, and also striking gold in the 200m with a time of 23.67 seconds. She also competed in the long jump and finished fifth with a leap of 5.40m (17’ 8-1/2”). In the under-17 girls 4x100m at CARIFTA, Nabbie teamed up with Shayann Demeritte, Darvinique Dean and Madison Moss, and the quartet won the silver medal in 46.43 seconds.
Nabbie went on to win a gold medal in the under-17 girls 100m at the Speed Capital International Championships in The Bahamas and added a fourth place finish in the 200m.
Like Gibson, Gibbs was strong for The Bahamas at the CARIFTA Aquatics Championships. She won a gold medal in the 15-17 girls 50m breast, setting a new CARIFTA record in the preliminaries of that event, touching the wall in 32.29 seconds. She went on to post a time of 32.88 seconds.
Gibbs also won gold in the 100m breast in a personal best of 1:14.74, was second in the 50m fly in 28.66 seconds, second in the 200m breast in 2:48.62 and fifth in the 50m free in 27.46 seconds. In the relays she and her teammates won gold in the 400m medley relay and bronze in 200m free relay.
Gibbs, just 17, also performed well at the nationals this year and represented The Bahamas at two major senior meets – the 24th Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games in San Salvador, El Salvador and the 20th World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan.
Gibbs is now a freshman for the Texas Christian University (TCU) Horned Frogs in Fort Worth, Texas, and is hoping to qualify for Team Bahamas for the Olympic Games in Paris, France, next summer.
Denika Lightbourne, who has started eight of 12 games for the University of Dayton Flyers women’s basketball team, and Kamera Strachan who set a new CARIFTA record of 46.07m (151’ 2”) for the gold medal in the under-17 girls javelin this year, finished tied for fourth in voting for the Nassau Guardian’s Junior Female Athlete of the Year honor.