ALIA ATKINSON and Breanna Roman last night won Jamaica's first gold medals at the 17th Caribbean Islands Swimming Championships at the National Stadium Pool in Kingston.

Atkinson, a 19-year-old University of Texas student,who will be competing at the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing next month, won the girls' 18 and over 100m freestyle.

She registered a winning time of 57.81 seconds, bettering the previous meet record of 57.96. Cuba's Heysi Villarreal was second in 58.41 and Trinidad and Tobago's (T&T) Sharntell McLean was third in 58.51.

Roman, competing in the girls' 11-12 100m freestyle, followed with another gold medal performance, winning in 1:01.86. Puerto Rico's Barbara Caraballo was second in 1:02.33 and Aruba's Ally Ponson was third 1:04.50

Earlier, Jonathan Wong won silver and Julian Wynter-Anderson bronze in the boys' 18 and over 400m individual medley (IM). Grenada's Martin Renrick won gold. Wong was second in 5:08.70 and Wynter-Anderson timed 5:20.55.

Ahead of the field

Jamaica's Danielle Boothe won bronze in the girls' 11-12 200m in in 2:37.39. Caraballo was way ahead of the field as she won gold in 2:31.78 while Barbados' Zebrina Holder took the silver in 2:37.07.

Local Octivia Gray was seventh in 2:51.12. Caraballo had earlier set a meet record of 2:31.20 in her heat. Boothe (1:16.37) was also fifth in the 11-12 100m backstroke, which was won by Barbados' Deandre Small (1:14.22). Stefani Webley was seventh in 1:19.08.

Alexia Royal-Eatmon was fifth in the girls' 13-14 400m IM in 5:33.48. Puerto Rico's Emily Ramirez won the event in 5:18.81. Matthew Chen finished back of the field in the boys' 13-14 400m IM in 5:24.40 behind winner Jourdy Martis of the Netherland Antilles in 4:53.33.

In other results, Nicole Chin (5:50.96) was seventh in the girls' 15-17 400m IM which was won by the Bahamas' McKayla Lighbourn (5:06.52).

The Dominican Republic's Jean Luis Gomez won gold in the boys' 15-17 400m IM in 4:44.59 with Jamaica's Ramon Walton (4:53.76) and Dominic Walter (5:07.54) finishing fifth and sixth respectively.

In the girls' 18 and over 400m IM, Tiffany Walton (6:32.05) was fourth and finished more than a minute behind the winner, Maria Zenoni (5:20.01) of the Dominican Republic.

Timothy Wynter just missed bronze in the boys' 11-12 100m backstroke after finishing fourth in 1:10.61. T&T's Joshua Romany won the event in 1:07.94.