By SHELDON LONGLEY, Acting Sports Editor

slongley@nasguard.com

When the concept of established swim goddesses Nikia Deveaux and Alana Dillette teaming up with junior sensations Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace and Ariel 'The Little Mermaid' Weech was first conceived, one knew that it would only be a matter of time before great things would happen.

Teaming up for the first time in their careers Wednesday night in Cartagena, Colombia, the extremely talented quartet, separated in age by two-year intervals, blasted the national record in the women's 400 metre Freestyle relay. In so doing, they won another historic swimming medal for The Bahamas.

One night after Jeremy Knowles secured the country's first Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games swimming medal ever, those four girls grabbed the second. It was also the first female medals for Bahamas' swimming at the Sr. CAC level.

Those four young ladies swam to a bronze medal finish in 3:57.22 Wednesday night in Cartagena. They blasted the old national record of 4:08.84 that was done by sisters Teisha and Alicia Lightbourne, Jenna Chaplin and Vanderpool-Wallace at the Carifta Championships in Bridgetown, Barbados earlier this year, and matched again at the Caribbean Island Swimming Championships (CISC) in Salinas, Puerto Rico just last month. It took a little more than three weeks for that record to fall as those four young ladies etched their names in the Bahamian history books.

Knowles continued an impressive night for The Bahamas and a superb games for him as he won his second silver medal Wednesday night. Knowles secured silver in the men's 200 metre Fly in 2:00.37, which was a little more than a second off his national record time (1:59.21). Mexico's Juan Veloz took the gold medal in 1:58.75. After the race, Knowles said that he just wanted to focus on the last 100 metres, and make sure he came home strong.

As for the four lovely young ladies from The Bahamas, they were determined to win the country's first CAC medal for female swimmers, and wanted to break a national record in the process. They accomplished both. As the only Bahamian female to represent The Bahamas at the Olympics, 20-year-old Nikia Deveaux got the four swimming divas started with an impressive first leg. She touched the wall at the first exchange in third place, as the youngest of the four, Ariel Weech, took over.

"It was rough but it went well. I just went out there hoping to bring back a medal for The Bahamas," the University of Kentucky sophomore swimmer was quoted as saying.

Weech, who is just 14-years-old, did her best to hang with the senior swimmers. She won three gold medals at the Carifta Swim Championships this year, and five more at CISC, but was swimming with the big girls now in her first CAC experience and did more than enough to keep the girls in contention for a medal. She touched the wall in fourth place but said afterwards that she just wanted to swim a good time and help the team in any way that she could.

Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace, 16, was next in the water for team Bahamas and she immediately paid dividends. With smooth quick turnover strokes, Vanderpool-Wallace propelled The Bahamas back into third place.

"The girls did well before me so I just went in there and worked my hardest," Vanderpool-Wallace was quoted as saying.

It was up to Alana Dillette, 18, to bring the historic medal home for The Bahamas, and not only did she do that, but she did it in impressive fashion as she increased the margin of victory over the fourth place competitor from a one-stroke advantage to a full body length lead. Dillette said afterwards that she just wanted to come back strong after finishing fourth in the 50 metre Back finals, and make sure that the team got a medal.

Venezuela won that race in 3:52.40 Wednesday night in Cartagena, and Mexico finished second. For Dillette, as mentioned above, it was her second final of the night. She almost picked up another medal with a fantastic swim in the finals of the 50 metre Back. Dillette finished fourth in 30.99 seconds, which was just three one hundredths of a second behind the third place finisher, Maria Morales from Guyana.

Going into last night's events, The Bahamas had yet another opportunity to pick up a swimming medal. Nikia Deveaux swam out of lane six in the final of the 50 metre Free but the result of that race was unavailable up to press time. She was the fourth fastest qualifier during the morning session in 27.07 seconds. Ariel Weech failed to qualify for the final as she swam 27.47 seconds in her morning heat and ended up with the 10th fastest time. Alana Dillette ended up with the 10th fastest time in the 200 metre Free in 2:10.38 and failed to qualify for the final, and Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace was the 13th fastest overall in that event in a time of 2:12.45 in her morning heat.