DOMINIC Walter, Jamaica’s first gold medallist at the four-day Carifta Swimming Championships at the National Stadium Pool, endured full-blown race jitters on his way to winning the Boys’ 15-17 1500m freestyle on day one Saturday night.

Walter clocked 16 minutes 56.07 seconds, beating Trinidadian Stefan Sharpe, 17:08.98, and Guadeloupean Miguel Col, 17:11.08.

Reassured by national coach and mother Jackie Walter, Dominic kept his head together and celebrated on the medal podium fittingly holding a Jamaican flag.

“I was seeded first but feeling very nervous. My coach just told me, I could do it and I needed to just relax… during the first third of the race, I was in pain and then slowly in the middle it went away a little because I saw that I was out there with the front. At the last I was fighting it hard, hard, hard and when I touched the wall it was amazing,” said Walter.

While Dominic will compete in three other individual events, plus relays, Timothy Wynter and Kendese Nangle added three more medals late Saturday.

Wynter demolished the field in the Boys’ 13-14 50m backstroke, winning in 28.02 seconds and almost smashing the Carifta record of 27.99 seconds set three years ago by Christian Holmer of Trinidad. Trinidadians Joshua Romany and Keegan Boisson-Yates finished second and third in 28.23 and 28.48 seconds respectively.

Olympic hopeful Nangle grabbed the bronze in the Girls’ 15-17 50m backstroke and 100m butterfly.

Nangle posted 31.13 seconds in the 50m backstroke, trailing Trinidadian and winner Kimberlee John Williams, 30.60 seconds and St Lucian Siona Huxley, 30.93 seconds.

For the 100m butterfly Nangle posted 1:07.91, after Williams, 1:06.63 and Bahamian Bria Deveaux, 1:07.67.

Dustin Tymes of Bahamas broke the meet record in the Boys’ 13-14 200m breaststroke when he clocked 2:31.30. He erased the previous mark of 2:32.77 set last year by Diguan Pigot of Suriname.

Homer broke his own meet record in the Boys’ 15-17 50m breastroke by clocking 26.70 seconds. The old mark of 26.93 was set earlier in the preliminaries.

Tyla Martin of Trinidad (Girls 11-12 100m butterfly-1:07.46), Zabrina Holder of Barbados (Girls 13-14 100m butterfly-1:04.74), Dylan Carter of Trinidad (Boys’ 13-14 100m butterfly-58.62), and Cadell Lyons of Trinidad (Boys 15-17 100m butterfly-55.79) also broke meet reccords on Saturday.