By TENAJH SWEETING

Tribune Sports Reporter

tsweeting@tribunemedia.net

Bahamian swim sensation Lamar Taylor has already cemented himself as a household name in the Bahamian aquatics community, but he once again extended his talents to the world stage in record-breaking fashion.

Taylor, who already owns several national records, added two more under his belt in the men’s 100m freestyle and 50m butterfly (short course) events to kickstart the 2024 World Aquatics Swimming (25m) Championships in Budapest, Hungary.

The University of Tennessee graduate student clocked a blazing time of 46.89 seconds in heat eight of the men’s 100m free yesterday to secure the final qualification spot for the semifinals. 

The 21-year-old then proceeded to lower his time for a national record and personal best of 46.34 seconds in the men’s 100m free semis. 

He finished 13th overall in the semifinals and was just the first Bahamian male to make it this far at the World Aquatics Swimming Championships (25m).

Algernon Cargill, president of the Bahamas Aquatics Federation (BAF), praised the exceptional performances of the swimmers on Wednesday.

“We had some great swims from Lamar Taylor, Victoria Russell and Emmanuel Gadson. They all saw personal best times in their events. We are also exceptionally proud of Lamar Taylor’s performance. He is the first Bahamian male to make it to the semifinals of a world championship. To place thirteenth overall is simply outstanding. His swims were impressive and he dropped considerable time in both the heats and the semifinals and based on that he is well positioned to do well next year at the world long course,” Cargill said.

Taylor also set his second national record of the short course swim meet earlier in the week in the heats of the men’s 50m butterfly. He turned in splits of 10.76 seconds and 12.48 seconds for a new national record of 23.24 seconds in the event. The national record holder wrapped up the heats ranked 39th out of 77 swimmers.

BAF president believes a change of scenery has done wonders for the University of Tennessee student.

“He excelled at the CARIFTA level. He won several NCAA titles in division two and I think his remarkable success this year is largely based on his new training programme at the University of Tennessee. Tennessee is one of the top training schools in the USA and he is just blessed to be apart of that environment. Given the new environment and more rigorous training he is undergoing, we are expecting him to continue to drop time,” he said.

Bahamian swimmers Emmanuel Gadson, Rhanishka Gibbs and Victoria Russell were also active on Wednesday.

Gadson competed in the men’s 100m breaststroke event. He clocked a personal best time of 1:00.42 in heat three of the men’s 100m breast for fourth place in those prelims.  

Gibbs set a new personal best in the women’s 100m breast event. She completed heat three in the ninth spot and turned in a personal best time of 1:14.99 on day two of competition.

Rusell got in one swim while at the World Champs short course in the women’s 50m fly event. She ended the heats with a time of 28.72 seconds for the 45th position overall.

All four swimmers will have an active next few days.  Taylor will look to continue his momentum today in the men’s 50m backstroke and on Saturday in the men’s 50m freestyle. Gadson will try his hand at the men’s 200m breast on Friday. Gibbs will compete in the women’s 50m free next on Saturday and Russell in the 50m breast on Saturday as well.

Competition concludes on December 15.