The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

FRESH off their silver-medal performances at the 6th Commonwealth Youth Games, Izaak Bastian and Lilly Higgs, along with Tyler Russell, are gearing up for their participation in the FINA World Jr Championships next month.

The championships are scheduled for August 23-28 in Indianapolis, Indiana. “I’m very excited. I’m going with the two Bahamian medallists from this meet, so I’m very excited. They’re way better than me,” said Russell.

“I’m proud to be able to represent the Bahamas at this very high level. Everybody knows that I’m the weak link, but I just want to swim my best times and improve.”

After turning on what he called sub-par performances at the CYG, Russell said he hopes it will inspire him to perform much better in Indianapolis.

Russell, a 16-year-old attending Mercersburg Academy – Pennsylvania Boarding School, had mixed reviews from his participation in the CYG.

“I was kind of disappointed in this meet, but I’m excited for the next meet because with rest and being at a much higher level, I know I will perform better,” he said.

“We practice in this pool and we had future Olympians competing in it against us,” he said. “Most of us got rolled out, but it was a lot of fun. I enjoyed it.”

Bastian, winner of the men’s silver medal in the 50m breaststroke and bronze in the 100m breaststroke, said he was surprised with his performances in the CYG. “On the psych sheets, I wasn’t supposed to make finals in any of the races and then to come out with two medals, it was insane,” he said.

Winning the medals has more than inspired Bastian as he prepares to travel to Indianapolis.

“It gives me a lot of confidence that yeah I can get up and race with a lot of the older kids, who I might not race otherwise from Australia and South Africa,” he said. “It shows that I can get up and race with them and not just roll over.”

Bastian, a 16-year-old student of St Andrew’s School in Florida, is hoping that his performances will roll over when he competes at the World Jr Championships.

“We have a very small team and I’m close with Lilly and Tyler, so I’m not too concerned about the team,” he said. “I think we will drop our times, show up and represent the Bahamas very well.”

And Higgs said that while she enjoyed competing in the CYG, the memories that she experienced will certainly last forever.

“I rested, shaved and taper for this meet, so I didn’t really know what to expect,” she stated. “This was the first meet that I did for the summer, so I was very happy with the results.”

While she won silver in the women’s 50m breast in a national record-breaking performance, she just missed getting back on the podium in the 100m breast where she finished fourth.

“It’s always tough to come fourth, but I’ll keep it in my mind and hopefully it will help to drive me forward when I go to World Jr to compete and make some finals there too,” she projected.

With a small, closely knitted team, Higgs said it could only help them in their quest to repeat the type of performances that they turned in here at home.

“Hopefully we will represent the Bahamas well at the games,” she proclaimed. “My goal is to make semifinal and final and turn in my best times.”

Higgs, a 16-year-old student at Hough High School in Charlotte, North Carolina, said she also hope to get avenge on any of the swimmers she face in Indianapolis, who beat her out at the CYG.

Traveling with the team as the manager is Rochelle Bastian, the mother of Izaak. She will take the team out of the country on August 20 and they will return home on August 29.

“We can expect great swims and happy memories from this team,” Bastian said. “They have proven that they can all swim best times at Commonwealth youth Games, so we are looking for them to drop even more times at World Jr Games.

“To win medals would be a plus. You always want medals, but we know that these kids are strong and they are focused and they know that they are going to represent their country very well.”

Sara Knowles from Abaco will travel as the team’s coach.