Now that the CARIFTA Swimming Championships are over, local swimmers will now turn their attention to higher level meets in the region and international arenas.
Meets on the Bahamas Swimming Federation's (BSF) radar include the Caribbean Island Swimming Championships (CISC), the London Olympic Games and the FINA World Swimming Championships. The trio of swimming meets is all penciled in after the hosting of the Royal Bank of Canada National Swimming championships, June 14-17 at the Betty Kenning Kelly National Swim Complex. The CISC is scheduled to start five days after the national championships. This meet will be held in Aruba.
Another big event on the calendar is the London Olympic Games. So far Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace is the only out right qualifier, Alana Dillete has an Olympic invitational time. The FINA World Swimming Championships are slated for December 12-16 in Istanbul. No swimmer or team has been ratified for these meets as yet.
President of the BSF Algernon Cargill explained, "We expect to have a strong team mostly made up of CARIFTA swimmers [for the CISC]. You will see the same swimmers all over again, so based on performances we expect to do very well. As you know Laura Morley was out of the water, we expect her to be back for CISC and do well. She is back in school, which is good. She is going to be training in two weeks and based on her fitness and her ability, we expect her to do well at CISC and at nationals.
"We expect her (Vanderpool-Wallace) to do her best. We don't want to put any pressure on her, in terms of medaling, but given her confidence and the way she has been swimming, we expect her to do extremely well at the games. If she doesn't medal we understand. The competition is very tough, but she is a fierce competitor and we expect her to represent The Bahamas extremely well at the Olympic games."
Like the CARIFTA Swimming Championships, the expectation for the nationals is high. The meet is the last opportunity swimmers will get to qualify for the Olympic games.
The Bahamas played host to some 18 countries from around the Caribbean last weekend, when the BSF staged the CARIFTA Swimming Championships. Overall, Team Bahamas was second with 49 medals - 13 gold, 20 silver and 16 bronze. Trinidad and Tobago secured 54 medals and Jamaica 63. However, the 26 gold medals captured by Trinidad and Tobago gave them the top spot. Jamaica had 25 gold medals over the four-day period. The remaining medals won by Trinidad and Tobago were 17 silver and 11 bronze.
"The feedback was fantastic," said Cargill. "We got positive feedback from all of the delegations as well as members of the public. They told members of our committee that this was the best CARIFTA that they have ever been to."
He continued, "We are continuing to receive a lot of accolades from our sister countries, telling us how well it went. They actually want The Bahamas to host it again. They had such a good time at the meet, in terms of the organization."
Swimmers will continue to train and compete in local meets. This weekend the Orcas Swim club will host its annual swim meet followed by the Sea Waves Aquatic Team and the Sea Bees Swim Club later on.

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