Competition kicked off for Team Trinidad and Tobago (TTO) on 7th September at the Tuana’imato Sports Facility in Samoa. The events carded for the day was the swimming events 50m Butterfly and Mixed 200m Medley relay and 100m in athletics.
 
Jeron Thompson and Amira Pilgrim competed in the 50m Butterfly event. Jeron completed his first heat of the competition earning a time of 26.19. While his teammate Amira finished her heat in 5th position in 29.32. Both swimmers qualified for the B Final later that evening. In the B Final of the 50m fly, Jeron won his race in 26.23, which earned him a 9th place finish out of the 16 fastest swimmers. Amira ranked 5th in her B Final event, finishing 13th overall with a time of 29.49.

Unique to the games is a combined federation 200m mixed medley where team TTO chose to pair with Jamaica. The mixed medley was a display event and did not count as a medal event.  In the end, TTO and Jamaica swam to a 7th place finish.

Manager of the swimming team, Mr. Joseph Mc Leod was pleased with the athletes’ performance. “I’m pleased with their performance since this the first time the athletes have been exposed to an International event and competitors;  prior to this they would have been exposed to regional events such as CCCAN and Carifta. Simple things such as the pool temperature (colder) and smaller starting blocks the athletes must adjust", he stated. He further described the Commonwealth Youth Games as developmental in nature and helps prepare athletes mentally for the senior multi sporting events.
 
In athletics, Youth Olympic athlete Akanni Hislop placed second in his heat in a time 10.72 seconds and automatically qualified for the semi- finals. Unfortunately, he succumbed to an injury during the race and was unable to start the semi final. The medical team will work with Akanni to ensure that he’s fit to run the 200m race later this evening.
 

Later today, swimming action takes off again as TTO’s swimmers compete in 100m Freestyle, 100m Breaststroke and 50m Backstroke.