T&T distance swimmer, Graham Chatoor, formerly of New York University established new national records in the men’s 800m freestyle and 1,500m freestyle at the CA MVN Fran Crippen Swim Meet of Champions held in Mission Viejo, California last month at the Marguerite Aquatic Center.
Chatoor touched the wall in eight minutes, 16.65 seconds a new national mark for the second spot in the 800m freestyle to trail the winner Luke Ellis who touched in a winning time of 8:06.34 minutes while Ivan Kurakin was third in 8:19.76, and Gabr Manteufel, fourth in 8:20.25
The 23-year-old Chatoor also set a new freestyle national record in 1,500m freestyle in 16 minutes, 07.67 seconds for the fifth spot to finish behind the quartet of Ellis who won in an Olympic standard qualifying time of 15 minutes, 29.67 seconds followed by Dillon Wright who also clocked an Olympic qualifying mark of 15:37.92 while Mateufel (15:50.91), and Riley Clinton (15:51.99) were third and fourth respectively.
The 400m freestyle splash saw Chatoor secure a fifth-place finish as well in three minutes, 58.62 seconds, a personal best time after he clocked 4:00.20 in the preliminary heats.
The winner of the final was Rex Maurer in an Olympic mark of 3:58.62 followed by Ivan Kurakin (3:57.48), Trenton Julien (3:58.19), and Ellis in 3:58.61.
And in the 200m freestyle as he followed up his 1:55.21 time in the heats by going faster in the finals to end in 1:53.53, but in the same fourth position as the trio of Kurakin (1:51.96), Noah Sech (1:50.56), and Maurer (1:49.55), secured the top three positions.
