The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas Swimming Federation took time out to celebrate the achievements in its recent history while also looking ahead to future growth and development of the sport locally.

In celebration of the BSF’s CARIFTA  2015 Swimming Champions, The Bahamas Swim Federation along with RBC Royal Bank hosted a cocktail reception last night to kick off the 2015 RBC Bahamas National Swimming Championships scheduled for June 25-28 at the Betty Kelly-Kenning National Swim Complex.

This April, the Bahamas won the meet for the second consecutive year with a total of 756.50 points, more than 100 points ahead of the host team Barbados, who was second with 642.50 points.

The Bahamas claimed 54 medals en route to the win, including 29 gold, 17 silver and eight bronze.

Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture Dr Daniel Johnson said celebrating the achievements of this group of young people will serve as an inspiration for others who follow in their footsteps. “We have to take every opportunity to highlight young people doing well. We often highlight young people that have fallen through the cracks and forget that for everyone one person that has made a mistake there are hundreds that continue to push to be better people,” Dr Johnson said.

“I expect success to breed success. We think names like Evans, Albury and Sands will be some of the names you will see in the Olympics and you will continue to see them compete around the world. The biggest thing with sports development is a venue. We want people to realise that the Bahamas government has taken very seriously the idea of improving sports facilities, not just for Nassau but to extend to the family of islands. It is not just for sports, these sports develop young people.”

Algernon Cargill, president of the BSF, said the development of the national development programme has been due in large part to the partnership with RBC which has now extended more than three decades.

“We are very happy with the long term support of RBC. For 32 years they have sponsored the National Swimming Championships and for the last five years the academic All-Bahamian award and this is the longest private enterprise sponsorship of a sporting organisation in the Bahamas. What we are happy about is that RBC continually increases its support and it’s very indicative of our athletes and their performances, winning CARIFTA the last two years.”

Looking ahead to the nationals, Cargill said it provides an opportunity for the Bahamian public to witness the best the sport has to offer. “We have a very talented group of senior swimmers and with the foundation we have set at the junior level, our performances will continue to grow.. That will be on display this weekend,” he said. “We won six CAC medals last year and a Commonwealth medal along with a Youth Olympic medal, so this tells you the Bahamas is headed in the right direction.”

This year, 12 swim clubs and 500 athletes, including international swimmers, are scheduled to participate as they are all seeking to qualify for the World Championships and the Rio Olympics.