According to Bahamas Swimming Federation (BSF) officials and coaches, the swimmers look "sharper than ever" and appear to be in good spirits ahead of defending their title at the 2015 CARIFTA Swimming Championships in Wildey, Barbados.

Last year, The Bahamas won the CARIFTA title for the first time in the BSF's history, finishing with 736.50 points and 55 total medals, and following this group's first official team practice on Saturday, the coaching staff, which will be headed by Sarah Knowles and Travano McPhee, was pleased with the level of effort given ahead of the top junior swim meet in the Caribbean region.

"All of the kids are really excited about traveling and a lot of our team members are the same team from last year," said Knowles in an interview with The Nassau Guardian. "Some of the juniors are new, but we have the seniors here motivating them and pushing them. As far as the pressure of repeating is concerned, it's basically the same pressure as trying to win, so I don't think that the kids are treating this meet any different."

One of the things that stood out most on Saturday, according to the coaches, was the conditioning of the athletes. They were pleased with the energy level around the pool throughout the vigorous sessions, and said that it could serve as a major advantage this week.

"We look sharp," said McPhee. "We are now working on fine-tuning the details like styles and turns, but as far as fitness, they look ready to race and that's the most important thing. Right now we're just trying to keep them focused mentally.

"The younger ones are the ones that you really have to try to motivate and keep calm, and you have to teach them what to expect, but I think our seniors are doing a good job with that. We're just excited right now. I can't wait to go down and get it started."

Team captains for this year's squad will be Meshach Roberts, Drew Bastian, Simone Sturrup and Joanna Evans. A lot will be expected from all of the captains, particularly Evans, who will be swimming at the championships for the last time in her career. Last year she finished the championships with six gold medals and one silver.

"This is her final year, and certainly she's focused on setting several CARIFTA records as she prepares for her transition through the senior ranks at the University of Texas," said BSF President Algernon Cargill. "They're all focusing on bringing good leadership to the team, as well as balance to make sure that they mentor the younger kids, so that they can do well as they progress through CARIFTA."

Another athlete expected to shoulder a lot of the team's load this year is Margaret Albury Higgs. Last year, Albury Higgs captured the 13-14 girls division with 78 total points, more than twice as much as the next highest scorer, Lesy Celini of Guadeloupe (35 points).

The team will have practice everyday leading up to their departure on Thursday. Competition begins on Saturday.

Anyone who has followed me, either on radio or in print for some time will be fully aware of the vital importance I place on The Power of The Mind to influence our life in either a positive or negative way, depending on what we allow into our minds. So the more we can do to keep our minds in a positive, constructive mode, the more we will succeed in life, across the board.

Now as I have articulated on many occasions, it is vitally important for us to do everything possible to foster excellent health of Body, Mind & Spirit. Of course, like everything else in life, good health starts in The Mind. In other words, being positive will assist us in having excellent health, across the board. When we're positive and upbeat, we release all sorts of wonderful chemicals into our body which contribute to excellent health.

Now two things which can assist immensely in keeping the mind positive and healthy are 'Laughter & Music'.  As we all know, when you have a really good, hearty laugh, there's no doubt about it, it makes you feel real good in Body, Mind & Spirit.  There's an excellent book written by Norman Cousins MD titled 'How I Laughed Myself To Good Health' which I'd highly recommend you read as it really contains the proof of the pudding, so to speak about The FACT, that laugher can be an excellent contributor to good health, across the board. Also the right kind of music can put you in a positive, upbeat frame of mind which likewise is a good contributor to having excellent health.

Yes indeed, 'Laughter & Music' are two great mental healers which we all need to expose ourselves to more often. As we know, music can be a mood enhancer; it can uplift us, provided of course it's the right kind of music. And of course it goes without saying, that when we laugh our cares temporarily go away and we start to experience a positive, upbeat frame of mind which can be extremely beneficial to our overall health. And My Friend, both of these excellent aids to good health are free!

o Think about it!
Visit my website at: www.dpaulreilly.com.
Listen to "Time to Think" the radio program on STAR 106.5 FM at 8:55 a.m. & 6:20 p.m.

The human element remains the "weakest link" in cybersecurity for local businesses and requires a more robust suite of security awareness programs for the country's workforce, according to Deputy Director of Information Technology (IT) for the National Insurance Board (NIB) Dr. Raymond Wells.

Speaking at a cybercrime awareness seminar hosted by KRyS Global, Wells warned that "security through obscurity" was no longer a defense for Bahamian businesses and advised companies to expand their budgets for employee training after a 2014 PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) report indicated that cybersecurity incidents had increased 66 percent year-over-year since 2009.

"This is your weakest link in your organization, the human element. Social engineers know this and take advantage of it and IT professionals know it and remove the things users do to put the network at risk. Users go everywhere. Management knows it but I ask, why aren't you budgeting for and mandating more security awareness training for the users of the company system? This is an everyday thing and every day new threats emerge so we need to stay abreast of emerging threats," Wells said.

The total number of detected security incidents reached 42.8 million in 2014, a 48 percent increase from 2013. With this in mind, Wells argued that Bahamian firms needed to turn their attention to minimizing their risk to exposure through more comprehensive security awareness training. In addition, he argued that The Bahamas needed to further strengthen its IT space by developing sound IT governance practices that ensured the effective and efficient use of IT, replacing outdated equipment more frequently, and performing regular security audits and assessments.

Wells also stressed the need to The Bahamas to development of stronger policies and procedures regarding data breaches for clients, imploring the government to introduce a data breach reporting law

"We as Bahamians are behind in the race. We have about three laws that really guide us in our cyber world and it's very inefficient. We have quite a ways to go in order for us to even be compliant with our Caribbean counterparts," he said.

Her Excellency Governor General Dame Marguerite Pindling hosted the Bahamas Softball Federation Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony at Government House Wednesday evening, March 25, sponsored by the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture.Stellar Bahamian softball icons Romell Knowles and Oria Wood-Knowles were honoured by President of the International Softball Federation, Dale McMann,as International Softball Federation Inductees.

Romell Knowles was the first Bahamian to be elected as Vice-President of the International Softball Federation (ISF) and sat on several important ISF Commissions. Known for his administrative abilities, he is also the Founding Member of the English Caribbean Associations of Softball Confederations – and was elected secretary general of the Bahamas Olympic Committee in 2008 and again in 2012.

Oria Wood-Knowles is known as ‘the best batter The Bahamas has ever produced.’ In her 34-year softball career, she has participated in many C.A.C. Games, Pan American Games and World Championships.

Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture the Hon. Dr. Daniel Johnson, and President of the Bahamas Olympic Committee Wellington Miller were present at the ceremony to congratulate the inductees.

2015 Bahamas Softball Federation Hall of Fame Inductees are: Anthony “Bubba” Douglas, Bahamas Wholesale Agency (BWA), Bahamas Telecommunications Company Ltd. (BTC), Byron “BJ” Johnson, Carolyn V. Ferguson, Cherry Elliott, Cornelius “Money” Williams, Courtney L. Chandler, Darrell Weir, Ernestine Butler, Five Wheels, Garth W. Rolle, Gladstone Sands, Hansel Collie, Hasting “The Hurler” Campbell, Hawette Ingraham, Hyacinth Farrington, James Smith, John Sands, Johnny L. Butler, Keva Turnquest (posthumously), Larie C. Newton, Leona Roache, Leroy Thompson, Mark Gates, Michael Laing, Nerissa Seymour, Paul Demeritte, Paula Johnson, Penal B. Wilson, Richard Morley, Spurgeon Johnson, and Vernie Curry.