By BRENT STUBBS

Chief Sports Editor

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net    

AFTER his appearance in the open water swim at the CARIFTA Swimming Championships in Trinidad & Tobago, Malcolm Menzies said it was good to be back home for the fourth Beautiful Bahamas Aquathon.

While Menzies captured the male title on Saturday at the Windsor High School, Erin Pritchard claimed the female title in the swim and run combined competition.

    Female 16-19 winners Sienna Culmer-Mackey, Erin Pritchard and Alanna Murray
  

The event, hosted by the Sea Waves Triathlon Club, served as a CARIFTA qualifier for competitors in 11-21 age groups. Competitors have certain times to make in order to qualify for the team.

The official times for the distances covered by the various age groups were not available from the competition, which was organised by former distance runner/swimmer Jacinda Mireault-Knowles. 

Menzies, who finished fifth in the open water swim at CARIFTA, felt quite comfortable back at home in familiar surroundings as a student of Windsor High.

“I felt good. I’m obviously still recovering from CARIFTA swimming, but I felt good,” he said. “I swam in the pool before and the track is amazing, so it was a pretty nice course for me.”

Without his archrival Launy Duncombe to push him, Menzies said it still turned out to be a fierce competition as he won over Ragh Cordova and Auden Bain from Grand Bahama.

He noted that he enjoyed his trip to Trinidad, watching the swim team collect its seventh straight title and then getting in the water to place fifth. He said he’s now concentrating on the national triathlon and CARIFTA aquathon.

Coming home from boarding school in England, Pritchard, 17, said she wanted to achieve the qualifying standard.

“I thought I had a good swim in the pool, even though it was a lot of laps,” Pritchard said. “But I came out pretty strong and I managed to get around the track before it got too hot. So I thought it was a good race.

“I’m just happy to be home. Obviously being away in school, I miss home a lot, but any opportunity I get, I enjoy coming back and racing. It was always fun to come back and compete against everybody.”

Alanna Murray, a 16-year-old 10th grader at Aquinas College, finished second, but she knew she had a little more left in the tank.

“It was bad,” she summed up. “I was still under the weather and my feet started to rub on my shoes from the first lap. The facility is nice.  like the one up here. I just need to work on my run and my swim. Both need improvement.”

Finishing in third place was Sienna Culmer-Mackey, who also expressed her disappointment with some reservations in her performance. 

“I’m kind of disappointed because I upped my training, so it was kind of feeling out my race pace. I dropped my time since the last aquathon,” said the University of the Bahamas student. 

“The training has improved, but I felt I did a lot of things wrong. I wished I would have gone out stronger and I wished I would have kept up my pace, but overall it was a good result. 

“I was only about 100 metres away from second place.”

Galleria Gervasini, the top open female finisher, said it was a “beautiful” experience for her, especially with the “well kept” facilities at Windsor High. 

“I caught out of the water and I caught some of the younger ladies, so it worked out very well for me,” said Gervasini. a native of Switzerland who has been living here for the past 15 years.

Shirley Mireault, who operates the Sea Waves Triathlon Club, said it was good to see the amount of competitors who came out and participated in the event.

“With more and more of the swim clubs and track clubs coming out to compete, it’s only going to make us better,” Mireault said. 

Top three finishers in each age group are as follows:

Open female - Ilaria Gervasini; Iola Knowles.

Male 16-19 - Malcoplm Menzies; Ragh Cordova; Ayden Bain.

Female 16-19 - Erin Pritchard; Alanna Murray; Sienna Culmer-Mackey.

Male 13-15 - Blair Thompson; Coylen Brown; Louchlon Menzies.

Female 13-15 - Nai’a Belton; Alice Huille; Tessa Knowles.

Male 11-12 - Stafford Sweeting; Lyall Menzies; Asher Bastian.

Female 11-12 - Sophie Brueckner; Hannah Astwood.

Male 9-10 - Connor Ferguson; Caiden Bain; Gabriael McPhee.

Female 9-10 - 

Syora Moss; Skylar’Jo Joseph.

Male 8-and-under - Msen Sadowski; Kenai Johnson; Elisio Juilen.Female 8-and-under - Madison Richards; Jenny Sutherland; Anna Sutherland.

Super sprint female - Summer McKinney.

Super sprint male - Shontero Knowles; Jemar Bienamie; Mathur Kabir.