Swimmer Nikoli Blackman bags T&T first gold

Swimmer Nikoli Blackman, 17, won his country’s first gold medal of the 2023 Commonwealth Youth Games when he stormed to victory in the men’s 200m freestyle final before his home supporters at the National Aquatic Centre in Trinidad.

Blackman departs soon to pick up his studies at the University of Tennessee in the USA, and opted out of the 50m butterfly final which was two races earlier to focus on the 200m freestyle won in one minute, 49.94 to beat Cayman Islands James Allison at 1:50.97 minutes into silver position and Australian Harvey Larke at 1:51.64 minutes with bronze. 

The others in the final were Australian Jye Bennion who place fourth at 1:51.81 followed by New Zealand’s Kevin Zhang at 1:51.83, Wales’ Solomon Williams at 1:52.01, India’s Shoan Ganguly at 1:53.47 and South African Kris Stefano Mihaylov at 1:53.56.

T&T’s other swimmer at the games, Zarek Wilson had to settle for the eight spot in the men’s 50m butterfly final in 25.01 seconds.

Scotland’s Dean Fear won gold in 24.43, just ahead of new games record-holder, England’s Nick Finch who touched in 24.46 with Fiji’s David Young, third in 24.48.

Northern Ireland’s Dylan Registe, who got into the final after Blackman withdrew from the event was fourth home in 24.72 followed by Nigeria’s Abdul Adama at 24.72, Bahamian Nigel Forbes at 24.73, and Singapore’s Randell Neo, who touched in 24.77.

In the hearts, Blackman and Wilson qualified to the final of the men’s 50m butterfly as the joint fourth, and seventh fastest qualifiers overall.