Team Bahamas finishes ninth at Jr. Pan Pacific Championships

The six-member team representing The Bahamas at the 2016 Junior Pan Pacific Championships in Maui, Hawaii, got the chance to measure themselves against the best in the world in their specialty events over the course the past week and they fared pretty well for the most part.

Izaak Bastian, Jared Fitzgerald, N’nhyn Fernander, Gershwin Greene and Lillian and Margaret Higgs all qualified for a number of A and B finals at the championships and appear to be in a prime position to reclaim the CARIFTA swimming title when the top regional meet returns to New Providence.

Team Bahamas, which was by far the smallest team at the meet, finished ninth in the final point standings with nine points. The United States won the overall point trophy with 477 total points. Australia was second with 307, Canada finished third with 257, Japan had 236 and China rounded out the top five with 57.

On Saturday, the final day of competition, The Bahamas was represented in one A and two B finals and also in the men’s 4×100 medley relay. Margaret finished eighth in the A final of the women’s 200 meter (m) breast in 2:35.60. American Zoe Bartel won the race in 2:25.46, followed by Kelsey Wog of Canada in 2:26.51 and Allie Raab from the United States.

Lilly finished seventh in the B final of the women’s 200 in 2:38.91. Green and Fitzgerald finished seventh and eighth in the B final of the men’s 50 long course meter freestyle in 23.68 and 24.05 seconds respectively. And in the 4×100 medley, The Bahamas was seventh in with a time of 4:00.37.

Bastian and Fernander also competed in the preliminary rounds on Saturday. Bastian was 25th in the men’s 50 meters in 24.25 seconds and he barely missed out on qualifying in the 200 breaststroke, finishing 17th in 2:26.08.

Fernander finished 25th in the 50-meter free in 24.27 seconds. Due to an eight-hour time difference, the results of Friday night’s finals were not available up to press time on Saturday. On Friday, Fernander finished seventh in the B final of the men’s 100m butterfly in 56.31 and the boy’s 4×100 freestyle relay team was seventh in 3:33.06.

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