A 12-member National Swimming Team will depart this Wednesday, 27 March to compete in the 37th Carifta Swimming Championships, which will be held this year at the Betty Kelly-Kenning Aquatic Centre in Nassau, The Bahamas.
The team which comprises 8 females and 4 males, range from the age categories of 11 years to 20 years.
The team will be accompanied by Coach Gerson Escobar, Team manager, Neil Francis, and Chaperones Nigel Gresham and Ruth Collymore.
This year being an olympic year, the competition will be accommodating athletes 18 years and over for those who wish to use the meet as an opportunity for Olympic qualification. Such athletes however, will not be earning points towards their teams, but are likely to gain medals.
The following are the team members and the events in which each will compete:
Females:
- Anaika Otway – 50m Backstroke, 50 & 100m Breaststroke, and 50 & 100m Freestyle
- Gabrielle Hyson – 100 & 50m Butterfly, and 100 & 50m Freestyle
- Sara Dowden – 50, 100 & 200m Butterfly, 200 & 400 individual medley (IM), and 400m Freestyle
- Tilly Collymore – 50, 100, 200, 400 & 800m Freestyle, 50 & 100m Butterfly, and 5k Open Water
- Zeia Ollivierre – 50, 100 & 200m Breaststroke, 50 & 100m Freestyle, 50m Butterfly and 50m Backstroke
- Kristin Gresham – 50, 100 & 200m Breaststroke, 50 & 100m Freestyle, 50m Butterfly, and 50m Backstroke
- Eliza Rose Benjamin – 50, 100 & 200m Freestyle, 50 & 100m Butterfly, 200 IM, and 50m Backstroke
- Nataly Escobar – 50, 100 & 200m Backstroke, 50 & 100m Freestyle, and 200 IM
Males:
- Jenebi Benoit – 50 & 100m Butterfly, and 50 & 100m Freestyle
- Zackary Gresham – 50 & 100m Backstroke, 50 & 100m Butterfly, 50 & 100m Breaststroke, and 50 & 100m Freestyle
- Jacob Collymore – 50, 100, 200, 400, 800 & 1500m Freestyle, 50, 100 & 200m Butterfly, and 200 IM
- Jaaziel Francis – 50, 100 & 200m Backstroke, 50 & 100m Butterfly, 50 & 100m Freestyle, and 50m Breaststroke
Both Tilly and her brother, Jacob, will also compete in the Open Water competition scheduled for 3 April.
This year’s Carifta team welcomes just 2 first timers, Nataly Escobar and Eliza Rose Benjamin. The athletes have been having on-going training sessions which have lead to their Carifta qualification and they have been training rigorously, since then in preparation for the upcoming championships.
GASA extends its usual best wishes to the team.
GASA
