By BRENT STUBBS
Senior Sports Reporter
bstubbs@tribunemedia.net
WITH the Bahamas Swimming Federation’s Royal Bank of Canada National Swim Championships over and done with, the focus now switches to the various national teams that will represent the Bahamas this summer.
The first team getting set to travel is the 30-member team to the Caribbean Island Swim Championships July 3-7 in Wildey, Barbados.
The team will be coached by Travano McPhee, assisted by Sara Knowles from Abaco. The team manager is John Bradley. The physiotherapists are Dorothy Roberts and Michelle Roach. The team doctor is Saida Bowe.
Here’s a look at the list of swimmers who will represent the Bahamas at the championships:
Girls 11-12 - Cecily Bowe, Tenniya Martin, Amber Pinder and Virginia Stamp
Girls 13-14 - Celia Campbell, Jasmine Gibson, Albury Higgs, Lilly Higgs and Victoria Russell
Girls 15-17 - Laura Morley, Joanna Evans, Maya Thompson and Andreas Weech
Girls 18-and-over - Ariel Weech
Boys 11-12 - Izaak Bastian, T’Lez Foulkes, Samuel Gibson, Darren Laing, Peter Morley and Luke-Kennedy Thompson
Boys 13-14 - Miller Albury, Joshua Roberts, William Russell, Alec Sands and Joshua Wong
Boys 15-17 - Drew Bastian, Dionisio Carey, Alexander Encinar, N’Nhyn Fernander, Gershwin Greene and Kohen Kerr
Open water - Meshach Roberts
McPhee, a coach with the Barracuda Swim Club, said he’s looking for some good things from the team when they travel on Monday to get ready for the championships that are scheduled to start next Thursday.
“All of the swimmers who swum at nationals, we all on best times,” McPhee said. “Some of them swum very well coming off CARIFTA, so I feel pretty good about the team and us travelling down there. So I am looking forward to some fast swimming.”
The BSF, headed by president Algernon Cargill, is still basking in the success of the team that finally won the CARIFTA title in April. The majority of the swimmers making the trip to Barbados were able to taste the thrill of victory in Savaneta, Aruba.Those swimmers are among the list that McPhee will be relying on to lead the team in Barbados.
“We look good in the boys 11-12 with Samuel Gibson, Izaak Bastian, Peter Morley and Darren Laing, as well as the 13-14 girls with Albury Higgs, Celia Campbell and Victoria Russell. I’m looking for us to score a lot of points in those age groups.”
While the team will have two strong age groups in the girls and boys 15-17, McPhee said the downfall will come in the 18-and-over where Ariel Weech is the only competitor who has entered in the girls’ division, while there are none entered in the boys.
“That is going to be our weakness,” McPhee said. “Some of the 18s and over are travelling to other competitions after the meet, so we expect to be outscored in those age groups. But in the 15-17 boys and girls, we have pretty strong swimmers like Drew Bastian, Dionisio Carey, Laura Morley and Joanna Evans, so we hope to make up for the 18-and-over.”
The team will practice together today through Saturday at the Betty Kelly Kenning Swim Complex with the swimmers from Grand Bahama expected in town by Friday. The team is scheduled to leave town on Monday.
Following the CISC, Evans and Dustin Tynes will be a part of the five-member team going to the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, July 23 to August 3. Evans and Tynes will also represent the Bahamas at the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China, August 16-28.
The federation is then expected to send teams to compete in the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games in Veracruz, Mexico, November 14-30 and the 12th FINA World Short Course Swimming Championships at the Aspire Sports Complex in Doha, Qatar, December 3-7.
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