While some of Jamaica’s young swimmers were making waves in Trinidad and Tobago, Nathaniel Thomas was kicking up a storm here at home establishing a number of meet records and one national record at the Aquatic Sports Association of Jamaica (ASAJ) Christmas Open and Christmas Breezer at the National Aquatic Centre.

The two meets were contested at the same time across four days and saw Tornadoes Swim Club topping both the Breezer, for 10 and under swimmers and the Open, which was contested by swimmers 11 and over.

The Wendy Lee-coached club amassed 1,413 points to better Y-Speedos (549 points), Blue Seal Swim Club (248 points), Marlins Swim Club (93 points) and Swimaz Aquatic (70 points) in the Open competition.

But it was a much closer affair in the Breezer, as they scored 599.5 points, to Y-Speedos’ 572 points and Marlins (226.5). The visiting Aquamarine Ripples out of Turks and Caicos Islands were fourth with 154 points, while Surfside Ocean Academy (98 points) completed the top five.

Thomas accounted for eight of the 12 meet records broken on the Open side of action with his national age-group record coming in the boys’ 11-12 50-metre butterfly twice in the heats and final.

The Tornadoes Swim Club representative, with his scintillating 27.86-second clocking in the final, became the first Jamaica male in his age group to break the 28-second barrier.

In the process he lowered his previous national record of 28.32s as well as the meet record of 27.95s which he established in the heats when he erased Timothy Wynter’s old mark of 29.39s.

Thomas also lowered the previous meet record of 30.71 when he clocked 30.21 in the 50m backstroke, and he later clocked 1:02.82 in the 100m butterfly to lower the previous mark of 1:06.67.

In the 200m backstroke, Thomas clocked 2:30.61 to lower the previous mark of 2:31.60 and he followed up with a fast 2:33.52 in the early round of the 200m butterfly to erase the old mark of 2:35.12.

His impressive form continued in the 100m and 200m freestyle where he clocked 58.13 to lower 58.73 in the former and 2:12.77 to lower 2:13.86 in the latter.

With those performances over the longer distances, the 50m freestyle was a mere formality for Thomas as he clocked a blistering 26.10 seconds to erase the old mark of 27.08.

Sabrina Lyn took down two records in the girls’ 11-12 50m breaststroke and 200m butterfly. She clocked 39.19 in the 50m breaststroke to erase the old mark of 39.31, and later registered 2:36.48 to better the previous mark of 2:49.01.

Britney Williams also etched her name in the record books clocking 4:50.87 in the girls’ 15 and over 400m freestyle to lower the old mark of 4:53.28.

While Thomas and his peers were celebrating their feat at home, the golden girls of Marlins Swim Club — Giani Francis, Kokolo Foster, Saidah Brown and Christanya Shirley — were also celebrating their record-breaking run at the Amateur Swimming Association of Trinidad and Tobago (ASATT) Invitational.

After lowering the long-standing girls’ 9-10 200-metre freestyle relay national record of 2:15.37 set back in 1988 when they clocked 2:14.66 at the Neville Alexander meet, they returned to again lower that time to 2:10.52 at the Dean Martin Memorial in October.

But they were not finished just yet and went even lower at 2:05.52 in the twin-island republic, registering one of the fastest times ever done by an English-Speaking Caribbean team in that age group.

Interestingly, a number of the 26 swimmers who returned home from Trinidad and Tobago between Monday and Tuesday also featured over the last two days of the Christmas Open and produced creditable performances.

One of those swimmers, Zaneta Alvaranga of Kaizen Swim Club, managed to establish a meet record in the girls’ 11-12 50m freestyle. She clocked 28.09 to better the previous mark of 28.35.