Five swimmers in record breaking form

FIVE VINCENTIAN swimmers left their mark on the 33rd hosting of the OECS Swimming Championships last weekend, as they combined to set 16 new records.

Staged in St Vincent and the Grenadines, at the Shrewsbury Aquatic Centre from November 7 – 9, 2025, the record breakers were Kione De Shong, Kennice Greene, Matthew Ballah, Hazen Dabriel and Zariel Nelson.

De Shong, competing in the Male 11- 12 age group, was the lead record breaker, lowering the lap eight times.

He bettered the time in the 50m Freestyle, which previously stood at 26.18 seconds to 25.09s.The new 100m Freestyle record is in the pocket of De Shong, who timed 57.79s, to erase the previous best of 58.07s.

Other records reset by the multiple Carifta medallist include the 200m Individual Medley which stands at 2:24.99, down from 2:26.71; the 50m Backstroke rebooted to 29.77s, from 30.53s; the 100m Backstroke is 1:08.23 , lowered from 1:08.31.

De Shong also took ownership of the 50m Breaststroke now at 31.95s, from 32.78s; the 100m Breaststroke from 1:10.37 to 1:09.47 and the 50m Butterfly from 28.84s to 28.70s.

Greene also was in good shape, rewriting four records in the Female 15 to 17 age category.

Greene lowered the 200m Individual Medley from 2:31.37 to 2:28.57; the 100m Freestyle from 59.45s to 58.74s; the 100m Butterfly from 1:05.60 to 1: 04.96; as well as the 50m Butterfly from 28.64s to 28.44s.

Meanwhile, Ballah in the Male 15 to 16 age group swam 26.95s in the 50 Backstroke, thus clipping the 26.97s; and in the 100m Backstroke he timed 59.15s to erase the previous record of 59.27s.

In the case of Dabriel, he replaced the 200m Individual Medley in the Male 15 to 17 age category with a 2:14.33 clocking , faster than the previous mark of 2:15.00; And, Nelson broke the Female 15 to 17 age group’s 100m Freestyle taking it to 59.35s from 59.45s.

The 16 records rewritten by the swimmers included 10 St Vincent and the Grenadines marks and six in the wider OECS sphere.

There were 28 new OECS records set at the 2025 edition of the championships.

St Lucia is the designated host for next year’s championships