12-year-old girl from Barbados wins gold in 100m, 200m breaststroke in Saint Lucia swim meet

Barbados: A 12-year-old girl named Saniya won gold medals in the 100m and 200m breaststroke in the Rodney Heights Aquatic Centre (RHAC) Swim meet in Saint Lucia. She also captured silver in the 200m IM and bronze in the 50m and 100m butterfly.

Saniya is a CARIFTA medalist after winning two individual silver medals, one bronze medal in the girls’ 11-12 age group breaststroke events, and one silver medal from a relay event at the 2024 CARIFTA Games, which were held in the Bahamas over the Easter weekend.

Saniya started her swimming journey at the tender age of two, when she was first introduced to the pool, but the toddler cried her heart out at every lesson and her mum thought that was the end of swimming for her daughter and she pulled her out.

However, things changed when Saniya entered St. Angela’s School where swimming was a part of the curriculum and she was back in the pool and this time she loved it.

Around the age of seven, her mum signed her up with the Olympian Swim Club under the guidance of coach Roydon Blades and she was shocked to see the transformation made by her daughter. The club provided Saniya with the groundwork necessary for developing her skills in the water and she was soon promoted to the competitive group with Coach Blades.

All was not easy splashing for Saniya who came nearly last in every race in her first competitive swim, but that did not deter her, she was just happy to be in the pool. She was then encouraged by Coach Blades and when she understood that to do better meant to train harder, she was willing to put in the work required and her progress has been remarkable.

Saniya competed in several local meets and she kept improving on her times and in 2022, she was named on the national team for the Goodwill Games that year. She competed in the girls 9-10 age group winning a silver in the 50m breast stroke and two bronze medals from relays.

As she continued to improve, she qualified for her first CARIFTA appearance for the championships in Curacao last year but returned without a medal and determined to do better, she claimed four medals this year.

Saniya now swims with Seaside Aquatics Swim Club, under the guidance of Coach Terrence Haynes and she is seeing tremendous improvement in her swimming. She is looking forward to the upcoming Aquatic Centre International meet at the end of May and she is focused and dedicated to to making the team for the CCCAN Games in Mexico this summer.

An active member of the St. Patricks Roman Catholic Church where she would on occasions read the lesson for the day’s service, Saniya attended St. Angela’s Primary School from the age of three where she excelled and maintained high grades.

She was a member of the school’s choir and she represented the school in swimming. She enjoyed gymnastics for a number of years and she also learned to play the piano.