Lightning swimmers win 13 Carifta medals

SMILING from ear to ear, four members of the Lucayan Lightning swim team returned from the Carifta Swimming Championships in Bridgetown, Barbados. And they certainly had good reason to celebrate, bringing home an impressive 13 medals.

The Bahamas' swim team, which had a total of 36 swimmers - four from Grand Bahama, one from Abaco and 31 from Nassau - amassed 41 medals and got third place overall behind Guadeloupe and Trinidad and Tobago.

Algernon Cargill, president of the Bahamas Swimming Federation highlighted the Lightning's Dustin Tynes as the most outstanding Bahamian swimmer in the 2011 Carifta championships.

In the boys' 13-14 category, Dustin won gold medals in the 50m, 100m and 200m breast stroke, breaking three Carifta records and two Bahamian records. He was also a member of the 400m medley relay team which took the bronze.

Taryn Smith swam in one of the closest races of the entire meet, the girls' 13-14 50m freestyle. There was a tie for the gold and Taryn received the bronze, only nine hundredths of a second behind the first place times.

Smith was awarded silver in the 50m fly and 100m free. She swam some of the strongest legs in all her relay events which gave her silver medals in the 400m medley, 200m, 400m and 800m freestyle.

Joanna Evans, swimming her first year in the girls' 13-14 category, joined her team mate and close friend Taryn in the 800m freestyle relay and was delighted with her silver medal.

The "third musketeer" of this dynamic trio, Maya Albury, competed in the girls' 15-17 category, swimming numerous personal best times and an impressive leg in the 200m freestyle relay to win her team the bronze medal.

Andy Loveitt, coach of the Lucayan Lightning, was extremely proud of his swimmers' performances, saying that dedication, resilience and hard work bring rewards.

Loviett wanted to publicly thanked Anita Doherty of Bishop Michael Eldon School, Preben Olsen of the Grand Bahama Yacht Club and Mike Webber of Our Lucaya for their support and use of pools, Sky Bahamas for travel sponsorship and Peter Rebmann and the Top 20 Club for their generous financial assistance.

"These results have been achieved under challenging circumstances. These children have been compelled to use different pools to achieve their goals. On some days, the team has to travel to different venues to accumulate sufficient training time," said Loveitt.

Bahamas team manager Patra Albury was very happy with the contingent that went to Barbados.

"Without exception, the 36 swimmers represented their families and country remarkably well. We are very proud of them.

"The celebrations had to be very short for the Lucayan Lightning Swim Team because they were up bright and early on Friday morning, training at 9am with their new motto, 'Don't wait for your ship to come in, swim out to it.'"

CARIFTA, the right tonic for Grand Bahama

By FRED STURRUP NG Columnist
Freeport-GRAND BAHAMA, Grand Bahama has struggled within the economic depression than any other island in the Commonwealth of The Bahamas. The island is paralyzed by unemployment, layoffs, business closures and generally a dampened spirit.
The industrial sector and government jobs have been the backbone during this trying period in the life of Grand Bahamians. Private entities, even the Grand Bahama Port Authority, have been severely tested.
Into this scenario comes the prospect of a regional sports event that could be the appropriate tonic to pick up Grand Bahama. Since St. Kitts is unable to host the CARIFTA Track and Field Championships this year and Jamaica was unable to step in and be accommodating, Jamaican Teddy McCook, who heads the North American, Central American and Caribbean Association(NACAC), has invited our local member association to do the honors.
However, as Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations chief Mike Sands has emphasized, the option could be a sparkplug for the Grand Bahama economy, if first, the full funding is secured.
It is understood that the BAAA has already gotten some pledges from Corporate Bahamas with the hopes of receiving enough to entice the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture to appeal to the Cabinet for supplementary funding.
I also see this as an instance whereby Corporate Grand Bahama should go all out to assist. Apart from the historic aspect of CARIFTA in Grand Bahama, the visiting of hundreds of athletes, officials and supporters from the rest of The Bahamas and the Caribbean region would be a huge sports/tourism boost for the entire island.
The time is short. This window of opportunity is closing quickly now. January will be gone soon and the CARIFTA Track and Field Championships are traditionally held around the Easter period. That would be the April 22nd weekend this year. In essence, sponsors will have to rally to the cause very soon.
The sporting landscape is the greatest beacon in the nation today and the CARIFTA Track and Field Championships would certainly shine a bright light all over Grand Bahama, indeed the entire northern Bahamas.
An appreciable infusion of cash into that local system would be the end result. The national airline Bahamasair, hotels, restaurants, souvenir shops, etc., would benefit immensely. The Bahamian economy is still distressed but this sports opportunity is one that ought not be missed. The Grand Bahama Members of Parliament and community leaders there should get into the act.

Eight GB Swimmers make National team

By Andrew Coakley

FN Sports Editor
Of the 32 member national CARIFTA Swim team headed to Jamaica this year, eight of those athletes hail from Grand Bahama.

Of those eight members, six hail from the YMCA Wave Runners and two from the Freeport Aquatics Club.

Aquatics Club swimmers are Delano McIntosh and Kadesha Culmer.

This year's CARIFTA will be held in Jamaica April 3-6.

The Freeport News was able to catch up with coach of the Wave Runners, Iva Dreske-Russell, during a practice session at the YMCA.

Coach Iva said that she's satisfied with the quality of the athletes from Grand Bahama.

Able only to speak mostly about the athletes she coaches, she noted that the team may be small, but is packed with swimmers who will be able to give The Bahamas some medals in the pool.

Of the six swimmers hailing from the Wave Runners, four have CARIFTA experiences and two are really novices making the CARIFTA team for the first time in their short swimming careers.

Evante Gibson (who is presently off in college), Mya Albury, Peter Farquharson and Taran Smith are somewhat the veterans on this year's team, all having competed at the CARIFTA level before.

Newcomers making their CARIFTA debut are Aaron Levarity and Joanna Evans.

"Those two newcomers have proven themselves not just here in Grand Bahama, but on the national scene, they were able to swim their way onto this year's team and that's impressive," said Coach Iva.

"Once September last year rolled around, I saw that these two had what it takes to be competitive and they were able to prove that by swimming the times necessary to get on this year's team."

She feels that this will be a great start to these novices' swimming careers and is confident that The Bahamas will hear more about them in the future.

With this combination of veterans and top-notch novices, coach Iva says she's looking forward to some great performances from these swimmers and an even better performance for the Bahamian team overall.

"I can say that the age group that will be the toughest will be the 13-14 division, because that's always been a tough bracket at the CARIFTA level, but I feel that the Bahamian athletes in that division will have what it takes to fight for medal contention in that division."

One of the impressive things about the swimmers coming from Grand Bahama is the fact that they made this year's team without the opportunity to compete as much as those swimmers in Nassau.

Thanks to the persistence and knowledge of coach Iva and the opportunity to have swimmers travel to the United States and to Cuba to gain experience, GB swimmers were able to qualify with times swum at those international events.

"Here in Freeport, it takes a lot of effort for parents to come up with the money to send their kids to Nassau on a regular basis to compete and qualify, so these swimmers actually made the team having only made about 40 percent of the swim meets available to them," noted Coach Iva.

"So, we have to proud of what these kids have accomplished."