The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

IZAAK Bastian said despite the normal Covid-19 restrictions that he’s had to endure for the past year at Florida State University, everything is going as expected for his debut at the 2020 Olympic Games.

Bastian, 20, is in Tokyo, Japan with fellow female swimmer Joanna Evans and his mother, Rochelle Bastian, who serves as the team manager for swimming.

“It’s been going good so far,” Bastian said. “Everybody’s been wearing their mask and trying to stay six feet apart. Other than that, it’s been good. The competition pool is nice and pretty, so I’m looking forward to it.”

His mother, Rochelle, said once they got into Tokyo on Sunday afternoon, the two swimmers were able to settle into the Games Village, eat dinner and get their necessary rest before they went out to the swim complex on Monday.

Bastian, who specialises in the 100 and 200 metres breastroke, will not start competing until Saturday. But he’s using the time ahead of the competition to get acclimatised to his new environment.

“The pool in the Games Village has been very good so far,” he stated. “I can’t complain about that either.”

The former St Andrew’s School standout, who has been competing competitively for the past 15 years, said he wants to make this a memorable experience for him.

He’s been to the Commonwealth Games, the World Long Course Championships, the Central American and Caribbean Games, the Junior World Championships twice, the Junior Pan Pacific Games and the Youth Commonwealth Games where he secured a gold and silver.

But he said there’s no better feeling than finally being at the Olympics where he hopes to enjoy the experience and to represent The Bahamas to the best of his ability.

“I feel I’ve experienced most of what I wanted so far,” he insisted. “Just walking into the swimming pool for the first time was just amazing.

“But I think after my first race, I think I will feel much better because I can actually say that I swam at the Olympics. So that is the biggest experience that I’m looking forward to the most.”

And as he tries to deal with the jitterbugs of making his debut, Bastian said there’s no better Bahamian to do it with than Evans, whom he called a real inspiration.

“She is a phenomenal swimmer and she’s a very kind person, which makes it even better,” he said. “But she’s also very funny. We’re friends, so it’s good to have a kind person like that on the team.

“As the senior person on the team, she’s been showing me the ropes, so I’m very grateful to be on the team with her. I think we have gelled very well.”

Of course, there’s nothing like having his mom in his corner as the team manager.

“I’m very thankful to have my mom here,” he stressed. “She’s been along with me the whole journey. She’s been with us as the team manager on other teams, so it’s good that she gets to be here as UI swim in my first Olympics.”

Rochelle and Darren Bastian are the proud parents of Bastian, and she said it’s an honour to be on the team as the manager for swimming.

“It’s an amazing experience, even though everyone keeps on saying it’s just so different because of Covid-19,” she said. “It’s still an amazing experience to be in the Games Village and around him and so many people whose names you only see in print.

“I expect that Izaak will lower his personal best. His swims in the 100 and 200m breast at Nationals were national records, so it would be amazing if he could better than times here at the Olympics.”

Bastian, with personal best times of one minute and .87 seconds in the 100m breastroke and 2:15.14 in the 200m breastroke, both Bahamian national records, will begin competition on Saturday.

In the meantime, he’s going to enjoy the amenities being offered in the Games Village, while going through his usual training routines in the pool.

“We’re taking extra precautions around the Games Village,” he said. “We have to utilise the hand sanitisers that are all over the place, wear our masks and stay six feet apart.

“Those are the standard protocols, but it’s something that we have to go through in order to remain safe during the games. So we’re trying to follow the rules as much as possible.”