Jamaica’s aquatic community is currently abuzz with excitement as it celebrates much more than the country’s historic 92-medal haul at the just-concluded 26th Goodwill Swimming Championships in Trinidad and Tobago.

After first being invited to the Goodwill Games in 2017, Jamaica on this outing officially earned its membership and with it, the opportunity to host next year’s staging of the event.

That opportunity was spurred by the breathtaking performances by the country’s young sensations, who wrapped up the three-day meet with 33 gold, 37 silver, 22 bronze medals, complemented by approximately 14 meet records.

With that tally, the 25-member team — of which all swimmers medalled — surpassed Jamaica’s previous best haul of 65 medals at the 2019 staging in Suriname. The team also amassed 1,002 points to finish second behind Trinidad and Tobago who finished tops with 1,442 points. Barbados (723 points) was third.

Team manager Carla Hollingsworth, was over the moon a out the team’s accomplishment.

“We had a massive medal haul because our swimmers performed brilliantly over the three days with a number of records broken. To say that they were at their best would be an understatement, and we are just happy and elated to show the country what swimming is all about,” a hoarse Hollingsworth told the Jamaica Observer.

“We are also happy to announce that team Jamaica will be hosting the 27th Goodwill Swim Meet here in Kingston and I want to say thanks to all our sponsors that made it possible. We are happy that with your help we were able to accomplish this,” she added.

On Sunday’s final day of competition, the Jamaicans took down five new meet records.

The first was set by Giani Francis in the girls’ 15-17 50m backstroke. She clocked 30.83 seconds to erase the 31.68s se in 2017.

Francis also accounted for the 100m butterfly record when she stopped the clock 1:06.09. That bettered the previous mark of 1:09.39.

The other three meet records came in the 200m freestyle relays with the girls’ 9-10 team of Kai Lawson, Zoya Hawes, Emanuelle Spence and Kia Alert clocking 2:03.79 to wipe out the old mark of 2:04.12 set in 2016.

Mikayla Brown, Renae Chung, Loren-Ann Patterson and the highly thought of Rianna Scott, who medalled in all 11 of her events, followed suit in the girls’ 13-14 event. They clocked 1:51.75 to better the previous mark of 1:56.20.

Brown was overwhelmed by the occasion.

“Being on this team has been a very surreal experience for me; it’s been very fun and exciting for me. My performances at the meet were really surprising and at the same time not surprising because I think that’s what I trained for and I broke a few records individually and in the relays, and I am happy about the overall team performance for the Games,” Brown told the Observer.

And the girls’ 15-17 quartet of Jada Latibeaudiere, Lia Forrester, Francis and Aliyah Heaven stopped the clock in 1:50.23. The old record was 1:54.52.

Dirk Harrison with 49 points and Lia Forrester with 51 points copped the high point award in their respective 15-17 age groups.

— Sherdon Cowan