Carifta swim team set a new standard - coach
Members of Bermuda's succesful Carifta Swimming Championships team have benefited enormously by competing in last week's meet in Aruba, according to head coach Richard Goodwin.
The Island sent 16 swimmers to the Championships where they hauled in eight medals and finished ninth out of the 14 countries competing. Almost 300 swimmers took part in the meet.
Breaststroke specialist Julian Fletcher set the pace for Bermuda, grabbing two golds and a bronze - his first gold marking the first-ever for Bermuda at the annual new championships.
"I am very pleased with the performances of the entire team, they all swam well and showed improvement across the board", said Goodwin on the team's return this week.
"When we first went, I was not expecting such a high standard as it is early in the season and (the championships) represent only half of the Caribbean swimming nations against whom we usually compete.
"Now that there are Olympic qualifiers at the meet as young as 15, it is clearly of a very high standard. We have only been going for four years, so this is a major accomplishment."
Local swimmers now face a busy summer with domestic and overseas meets scheduled for June and July.
These include the Making Waves Summer Age Group Championships over the first weekend of June, followed by the Rego Sothebys National Championships over the third weekend of June.
After these meets are completed, the swimmers will shift their focus to overseas competitions as they take part in the Alberta Age Group and Senior Provincial Championships.
A select group will then participate in the second FINA World Youth Championships in Monterrey, Mexico in the second week of July.
"This meet will feature the finest young swimmers in the world and will undoubtedly build on the first one held in Rio de Janeiro and be of an extremely high standard", Goodwin added.
In addition to the team that will travel to Mexico, Bermuda will send another team to compete in the Canadian Age Group Championships in Winnipeg.
At the senior level, officials are eagerly awaiting results of meets to be held within the next two weeks when Olympic hopefuls Kiera Aitken and Roy-Allan Burch will be attempting to make the required FINA qualifying standards.