Heidi Stoute wins gold in 13-14 age group of CARIFTA Games

Castries, Saint Lucia: Heidi Stoute won gold in 13-14 age group of the 37^th CARIFTA Aquatics Games which ended in the Bahamas earlier this month. She swam for the second year in a row and signalled to the region that she just keeps getting better.

The Bajan swimming sensation was impressive in the pool with six individual gold medals, four of which were CARIFTA records, three relay gold medals and one relay silver medal. Her performance earned her the prestigious Federation Internationale de natation (FIN) High Point Award.

Heidi competed in six individual races and (800m freestyle, 200m freestyle, 1500m freestyle record, 400m freestyle, 100m freestyle, 50m freestyle) and won gold in all of them while her four records were achieved in the 800m, 1500m, 400m and 100m freestyle races. Thus, setting the standard of excellence at a young age.

In her first CARIFTA Games last year, she won 6 CARIFTA gold medals and three relay gold medals, broke records in the 1,500m freestyle, and won the 5k Open Water race.

Heidi is a student at St Winifred’s School, where she first started competitive swimming. There, she represented the school at the inter-school swimming championships.

Heid won most of her races at that first meet and she got hooked on swimming and never looked back. Today, this talented and impressive young lady holds several local records and has solidified her status as a local and regional swimming sensation.

She represented Barbados at the 2023 Junior Commonwealth Games where she won a bronze medal in the 400m freestyle and became the first Barbadian to bring home a medal from those games in swimming.

After an impressive and outstanding year in swimming in 2023, Heidi was rewarded with the Barbados Olympic Association, ‘Junior Female Athlete of The Year Award (2023).

Netizens expressed pleasure and said that the game has remained memorable for the athletes of Barbados.