She has been no stranger to setting national relay records since making her debut in Jamaica’s swim team in 2016, but Shaun Johnson found it hard to achieve an individual national age group record.

Never one to give up, Johnson finally succeeded when her bronze medal winning performance at the recently concluded 33rd Carifta Swimming Championships in Kingston saw her registering her sub-29-second clocking in the 50-metre butterfly.

Johnson’s performance came on Sunday’s second day of the four-day championship at National Aquatic Centre.

She entered the preliminary round of the girls’ 15-17 50m butterfly with a personal best 29.24s, but that would be no more as she touched the wall in 28.72s to lower the old mark of 28.87 set by Alia Atkinson at the CCCAN Championships in August 2005.

However, the strong-minded athlete had more to offer in the final and went even faster, clocking 28.52s for bronze. The event was won by Curacao’s Chade Nersicio (28.00s), with Elinah Philip (28.29s) of the British Virgin Islands taking silver.

That performance detailed her significant improvement from last year when she placed eighth in the championship final in 29.24s.

The 17-year-old team captain was even more delighted by the fact that she brought the curtains down on her Carifta career in record-breaking fashion in her home nation.

“This Carifta was probably my best one yet; I was selected to be a team captain and that was made to be a very easy job with the help of the other swimmers, coaches, and team managers.

“Having that 50m butterfly record is honestly surprising. Actually I am surprised about how the butterfly events turned out for me because I haven’t been contesting that stroke for some time now. So I didn’t go into the meet scoping out any specific times, I just wanted to see what racing at my very best would look like — so it’s a great feeling to leave an impact,” Johnson told the Jamaica Observer.

The New York-based swimmer, who earns her Jamaican stripes through her parents, attributed her butterfly success to Mariusz Podkoscielny, who assisted her through issues regarding accommodating stroke rate/strength with her height.

Podkoscielny assists a lot of Caribbean national swimmers with his club and high school team at Pine Crest in Florida.

“I’ve spent the past few weeks training at Pine Crest with their phenomenal coaches, and they really helped to make this Carifta a great one for me. They train long course just about year-round, so considering I’m from the north, we train long course exclusively in the summer, if even that.

“So the exposure to Pine Crest was enough to make me feel stronger and more confident for Carifta. In addition, he [Podkoscielny] just has a very special way of coaching because I felt equally confident about every single one of my races going into this weekend,” Johnson explained.

“Most people tend to call me a backstroker, but I don’t think it’s necessary to specialise in any one event, so I was happy to see that Podkoscielny felt the same way in getting me prepared. And after working persistently, I had great results,” she added.

The cool, calm and collected swimmer has now packed her successful Carifta career in her bag and is heading for even more success, as she is bound to dock at Georgetown University.

“I think I performed towards to the level that I have been training to but I will have to continue to work harder for Jamaica, and I’m excited to see what that will look like in the future. Now that Carifta is over I have to start creating new goals, but my most long-term goal right now is qualifying for NCAAs for Georgetown, so I am excited about what the future has to offer me as I continue training to be better,” the jovial swimmer ended.