Bermuda’s talented young swimmers begin their Carifta Aquatic Championship campaigns in Martinique on Saturday morning.

A big squad of 19, up from 15 last year, has travelled to the Caribbean country alongside national coaches Ben Smith and Shona Palmer, but the experienced duo are not setting massive expectations with a number of athletes having their first Carifta experiences.

“It’s a strong group, but it’s a mixture of swimmers at their first Carifta with some swimmers that have been at several Cariftas,” Smith said.

“It’s always good for them to have those role models within the team. We've seen good growth in the programme over the last couple of years and to see multiple athletes swimming multiple disciplines is probably the most important thing that we have with this particular team.”

Any medal expectations that exist seem to be attached to the shoulders of Marleigh Howes, with Palmer hopeful the youngster can make it on to the podium at least once.

“We’ve still got some really strong swimmers and strong potential for podiums,” Palmer said.

“The most experienced will be Marleigh Howes, who has been to a good number of Cariftas. She’s going to be well prepared and I’m sure very excited to swim. But for a lot of this squad it is about getting that initial exposure and for the youngsters that is super important for development.”

Violet Smith, who is at Baylor High School in Tennessee, is making a return to Carifta after an absence of a few years and is looking forward to the event.

“I haven’t been in the past four years, so I’m really excited to be back at Carifta,” Smith said.

“I’ve got four events and the workload and schedule is a lot, but I just take naps in between sessions and try to prepare my body as best as I can. I’m hoping to final and to maybe get a podium finish would be great.”

Connor Hupman won seven medals at the 2024 Games and is hopeful of a return to the podium after missing out in 2025 on his first attempt in an older age group.

“I’ve made a lot of improvements in all my events and dropped a lot of time in the past year,” Hupman said.

“My goal is to get a medal for Bermuda and that is most likely to come in the 100 or 200 free. The relay team is also looking quite strong and it’s good to be back with people from Bermuda. We're all looking forward to it, so it should be fun.”