Matthew Chapman, Star Writer
Nangle - colin hamilton
Kendese Nangle on Tuesday propelled Jamaica to victory when she won an impressive two gold and three silver medals in individual events at the 17th biennial Caribbean Island Swimming Championships (CISC).
This year, it was held at the National Stadium Pool in Kingston, the fourth year that Jamaica has hosted the championships since its inception in 1976. The championships include a multitude of swimming events, as well as water polo and synchronised swimming competitions.
This year's championships were a great success for Jamaica with them winning the overall competition after a strong all-round team performance. Although Jamaica came fifth in the medals table behind Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago, The Bahamas and Cuba, they came first overall, having finished second in the swimming competition, third in the synchronised swimming, and second in the water polo.
Star of the show
The star of the show was undoubtedly 13-year-old Nangle, with her five medals in individual events. She won the silver medals in the 200 metre backstroke and the 50 metre butterfly and freestyle, while her gold medals came in the 50 metre and 100 metre backstroke. Not only did she win gold in these two events, but at the same time she also smashed the national records for the 13-14 age group. She broke the record in the 50 metre backstroke during preliminaries with a time of 31.08 seconds. Her other record came on Tuesday in the finals of the 100 metre backstroke, when she swam a fast time of 1:08.19. The time in the 100m backstroke is also a meet record.
Her record-breaking times came as no shock to coach Jackie Walter, who said, "It didn't come as a surprise because she went to the World Youth Championships (July 8-13) and the times she did there suggested to me she was ready to break the records."
A delighted Nangle said of her record-breaking times: "It was really nice to have my name and my country's name in the record books. In a way I was expecting the 50-metre record more because I have it in the 11-12 girls' section."
Easy getting
It has been no easy ride getting to such an advanced level of swimming as attested by the training regimes of the young Jamaican swimmers. All the Jamaican representatives train twice a week with national coach Walter, and on top of this, they do additional training with their club coaches. Another notable performer who supported the strong Jamaican team in their victorious championship campaign was Alia Atkinson, who came away with a total of three gold medals. The relay teams also performed outstandingly with Nangle again helping Jamaica to another two medals in the 4x100m freestyle and 4x100m medley.
Nangle, who has been swimming competitively since third grade, will have to wait until March next year to compete in the next international competition, when she will take part in the Caribbean Championships. Her ultimate dream is to represent Jamaica in swimming in the Olympics in London in 2012.
"I would love to go to the Olympics," said the teenager, enthused with great passion. Walter is sure to keep Nangle's feet on the ground.
"I think she is good enough to compete in the Olympics, but she is still very young, so I am very wary of predicting she will. Us coaches are always wary of predicting our swimmers will reach the Olympics," Walter said. The next stepping stone to potential Olympic participation for the young Jamaican swimmers will come in the form of the Caribbean and Central American Games in 2010.
Kendese Nangle ... broke the girls' 13-14 100m backstroke record with a time of 1:08.19 on Tuesday night. - levaughn flynn
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