Three medals for Jamaica in Special Olympic Latin American Games
HEAD of Delegation Beulah Bartholomew has praised the effort of Jamaica’s Special Olympians, who overcame several obstacles to claim three medals, two gold and one silver, at the Special Olympics Latin American Games, which ended in Puerto Rico on Saturday.
Andrew Bartholomew captured gold in the 25m freestyle, while the 4X4 25m relay team also claimed gold and Crystal Knight captured silver in the 25m backstroke.
Racquel Lovindeer and Nicholas McBean were the other members of Jamaica’s team.
However, Bartholomew told the Observer that the current water restrictions in Kingston and St Andrew made things tough in the final stages of preparation, as the pool at the University of Technology (UTech) where the team trains, was closed.
“We could not practise as often as we should have, but despite those challenges they went to the games, their first internationally, and they were not afraid, they went in, gave it their best and the result is there for us all to see,” she said.
Bartholomew, who is the mother of gold medallist Andrew, said she was so proud and “excited” of the effort of the team as Jamaicans: “I didn’t even look at it as a parent looking on, I didn’t remember I was a mother.”
“We were not able to get close enough to them before the start of the race and just looking on as a team member there were things going awfully wrong and we couldn’t do anything, so we just left it up to fate and he (Andrew) took it into his stride came right back up and took charge of the race,” she added.