In recognition of The Bahamas' dominant performance at the 2015 CARIFTA Swimming Championships in Wildey, Barbados, over the Easter holiday weekend, the Bahamas Swimming Federation (BSF) held a special ceremony to honor the young athletes recent achievements, and also to discuss its future endeavors.
Team Bahamas won the CARIFTA championships for the second consecutive year with a grand total of 756.50 points. They finished the three-day meet with 54 medals, including 29 gold, 17 silver and eight bronze. The reception, which was held along with RBC Royal Bank, was also put on to celebrate the opening of the RBC Bahamas National Swimming Championships, scheduled for this weekend at the Betty Kelly-Kenning National Swim Complex.
Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture Dr. Daniel Johnson said that it is important that we as a nation make sure that we honor the accomplishments of our athletes, and that we offer them our full support with them moving forward with their careers.
"We have to take every opportunity to highlight young people who are doing well," he said. "Too often we highlight young people who have fallen through the cracks, and forget that for every one person who has made a mistake, there are hundreds that continue to push to be better people. I expect success to breed success. We think names like (Joanna) Evans and (Margaret) Albury (Higgs) will be some of the names you will see in the Olympics and you will continue to see them compete around the world."
BSF President Algernon Cargill, who was elected on Monday to represent the region on the executive body of the Swimming Union of the Americas (UANA), said that the BSF's partnership with RBC plays a major role in the development of the sport of swimming in the country. This year marks the 32nd consecutive year that the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) has come on board as the title sponsor of the swimming nationals.
"We are very happy with the long-term support of RBC," said Cargill. "For 32 years they have sponsored the swimming championships, and for the last five years the academic All-Bahamian awards, and this is the longest private enterprise sponsorship of a sporting organization 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."
Cargill said that he expects this year's nationals to be "the most exciting" edition of the meet ever.
"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.
The swimming nationals is a FINA (International Swimming Federation) sanctioned event, and one of the region's final qualifiers for the 16th FINA World Aquatics Championships in Kazan, Russia this summer, and the 17th Pan American Games which will be held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, next month. The Pan Ams is set for July 10-26, and the FINA Worlds is set for July 24 to August 9.
The RBC swimming nationals will also serve as a qualifier for next year's Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
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