THE ever-dominant Tornadoes Swim Club regained their place atop the podium of the Amateur Swimming Association of Jamaica (ASAJ) Christmas Open Championships as the curtains came down on the 2015 season at the National Aquatics Centre on Sunday.

The Wendy Lee-coached club, which stole the show on the final day of the 2014 staging, once again demolished all within their path and twirled atop the standings after amassing 699.50 points to be named overall champions.

But pacesetters ‘Y’ Speedos improved on their third-place finish last year and are gradually closing the gap as they tallied 692.50 points, while Marlins Swim Club also improved to take third with 422.50 points up from fourth last year.

Last year’s runners-up Swimaz Aquatic (394.50) had to settle for fourth with Unattached Tornadoes (49), Blue Marlins (30), Swift Swimming (27), Unattached Speedos (23) and Blue Seal (22) rounded off the nine-team standings.

The promising Karci Gibson of Marlins, who was a part of the successful team that ventured to the ASATT Invitational in Trinidad & Tobago recently, was named top girl in the 10-12 category, while Cameron Brown of ‘Y’ Speedos won the boys’ category.

Another ‘Y’ Speedos representative, Angara Sinclair, was the top girl in the open category with Tornadoes representative Sean Douglas-Gooden being named top boy.

Meanwhile, national age-group record-breaker Jesse Marsh, Douglas-Gooden and Bahamian DaVante Carey accounted for seven of the 14 records totalled over the four days.

The trio, who claimed three of the five records established on the final day, was later named recipients of the High Performers’ Award for achieving Quad-A (AAAA) standard times in a number of their events.

Earlier on the final day, Carey kicked off proceedings with his second record of the meet when he clocked a fast 58.73 seconds in the boys’10-12 100-metre freestyle to erase the old mark of 59.93 seconds set by Marsh back in 2013. He won ahead of the ‘Y’ Speedos pair of Brown (1:01.91) and Dominic Mullings (1:02.37).

Douglas-Gooden then achieved his third record of the meet when he clocked in at 1:11.11 minutes in the boys’ 13 and over 100-metre breaststroke to lower Kevaughn Campbell’s old mark of 1:12.04 minutes set last year. Xavier Phillips (1:13.71), swimming unattached, was second with Keith-Jordan Wilkinson (1:17.41) of Marlins finishing third.

The 15-year-old Sinclair, who has promised a lot over the years, snatched her first record of the meet in the girls’ 13 and over 50-metre backstroke event. She clocked a fast 31.50 seconds to lower Kendese Nangle’s five-year-old mark of 31.77 seconds on her way to victory ahead of Britney Williams (34.37sec) of Swimaz Aquatic and Anjuii Barrett (34.38sec) of Marlins.

The sensational Marsh, who is now based in Florida, then annihilated the six-year-old mark of 2:21.87 minutes set by Dominic Walter in 2009 by well over seven seconds, when he clocked 2:13.33 minutes in the boys’ 13 and over 200-metre butterfly event.

The time was also confirmed to be a new national age-group record, lowering the 2:15.41 minutes he set at the Central American and Caribbean Amateur Swimming Confederation (CCCAN) games earlier this year. Jordane Payne (2:31.49) of ‘Y’ Speedos was left back in second with Darius Smith (2:48.55) of Tornadoes taking third.

And just as it opened in record-breaking fashion, the curtains were brought down on the championships in a similar manner courtesy of the Marlins A 400-metre freestyle relay unit.

The team of Gibson, Stefani Webley and Octavia Gray with Anjuii Barrett on the final leg clocked 4:28.68 minutes, lowering the previous record of 4:29.16 minutes set back in 2011 by Swimaz Aquatic.

The ‘Y’ Speedos team comprising Paris Clare, Sinclair, Jaden Morales and Michae Bradshaw was second in a time of 4:47.71 minutes, while Tornadoes (4:51.77) with Llori Sharpe, Alexandra Bernyck, Arianne Leo-Rhynie and Annastazia Chin finishing third.