Authorities at odds over schedule of 1st time trial

CARIFTA time trial

The first swimming event for the year suffered a setback as there was a relatively low turnout when the Guyana Amateur Swimming Association (GASA) hosted the first of two time trials for the CARIFTA Games on Saturday at the National Aquatic Centre.

This prompted speculations that there have been some issues for concern on the swimming authority’s behalf.
The event saw participation from only 15 swimmers – five females and 10 males.
According to Stephanie Fraser, Coach of Dorado Swimming Club, the low turnout was due to the early scheduling of the event. “First of all, I think this trial came too early because the pool was closed over the Christmas season, the kids were not training for three weeks. So far they are doing some good timings from the few races I’ve seen, but this time trial is way too early and this is just not for my club.”
Silver Sharks trainer, Paul Mahaica, shared similar sentiments as Fraser. He said the event should have been scheduled for February so the swimmers could have been better prepared.
Meanwhile, GASA Vice President Dave Ramnarine said the reason for the early trial was to give clubs an opportunity to see the form of their swimmers. “In terms of the time trial being early as I said before this is one of two time trials and this first one is like a warm-up so you can establish where your swimmers are and where they need to be for the qualifying times. So I wouldn’t say it’s too early.”
Silver Shark Club swimmer, Leon Seaton was relentless on day one of the trial. He impressed in his 50m dash freestyle in winning and qualifying time yesterday at the National Aquatic Centre. His time of 27.97 seconds beat the 28.89secs qualification time.
However, he was the lone success on a day that saw a poor turnout of only 15 swimmers. Seaton also miss out on qualification in the 50m butterfly and 100m freestyle.
Lian Winter and Rackwon Noel in the 50m butterfly and 50m backstroke respectively narrowly missed out.
These swimmers are expected to redeem themselves, among them the George Sisters at the next time trial In February.