RBC sponsors swimming nationals again!

Thu, Jun 9th 2011, 11:30 AM

Local swimmers will be afforded another opportunity by the Bahamas Swimming Federation (BSF), to qualify for the 2012 Olympic Games. The 28th Annual Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) BSF National Swimming Championships was sanctioned by the international governing body for the sport, FINA, as an Olympic qualifier.
More importantly, the four-day meet is the last opportunity for swimmers to qualify gor the FINA World Championships, set to take place July 16-31, in Shanghai, China. The national championships will be held at the Betty Kelly Kenning National Aquatics Centre, June 18-21. More than 350 swimmers, both local and international, will participate. BSF President Algernon Cargill was pleased to officially announce the dates, times and sponsors for the meet yesterday. He was beaming with pride when confirming that FINA had sanctioned the meet once again.
"It was very easy and a routine matter of receiving FINA's approval for these championships to be an Olympic qualifying event," said Cargill. "FINA actually encourages facilities throughout the region to provide these opportunities. They do not sanction a lot of meets, but we have had this meet sanctioned from 2008. We try to ensure that our swimmers who want to compete at the Olympic Games can actually qualify at home.
"We have been very successful because of the standard of the meet. They (FINA) have been able to put it as an Olympic qualifying meet. This is why the meet has also drawn attention from swimmers from the United States and Venezuela. We have these swimmers coming down. It is one of the few opportunities left to qualify for the World Championships this summer, so it is actually going to be recognized as a World Championships qualifier as well. We are happy that we are able to do this."
So far, a total of 356 swimmers have confirmed their participation in the meet that has seen RBC donate $32,000 toward a successful hosting.
"This is the biggest championships ever," said Cargill, who announced that 15 teams will contest the meet. Eight teams are New Providence based teams, three are from Grand Bahama, Abaco and Venezuela have entered one squad each and the United States has two teams.
With the meet being open to international competitors, Cargill believes that more Bahamian swimmers will be able to qualify for the upcoming regional and international meets. The FINA World Championships have seen three Bahamian swimmers qualify so far. That trio includes Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace, Alana Dillette and Vereance Burrows.
No Bahamian swimmer will be displaced now that the meet has been extended to others. Cargill said: "Hopefully, it will make them go faster. The swimmers tend to respond to the occasion. The question we always have to ask at the federation level is what happens normally when there is a final of eight swimmers and if we have the foreign swimmers who would make the final. Will this displace the Bahamian swimmers? I want to tackle that head on. Our priority first off is to the Bahamian swimmers competing at the national championships. One of the good things about our pool is we have 10 lanes, so it means that we will restrict two lanes in the finals for foreign swimmers only. The other eight lanes that will actually score points will belong to Bahamian swimmers.
"Through the 10-lane facility that we have, which is one of the few in the region, we can host a meet of this standard and ensure that we have all eight lanes dedicated to Bahamian swimmers. I think that is very important for us. This is actually The Bahamas' National Swimming Championships but we want to open the door to foreign swimmers to compete as well because it helps our swimmers to go faster. It shows them really how much more training we have to do to be able to compete with the world's best."
Cargill said that the executive members of the BSF are very appreciative with the great sponsorship received from the Royal Bank of Canada. The bank has supported the efforts of the swimming federation for more than 20 years.
Tickets will be available at the aquatic centre ranging from $5-10.

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