A team of 36 Guyanese swimmers between the ages of 7 and 17 will depart today as they seek to better their performances at the Goodwill Swim Meet, which is being held in Barbados from August 17-19.
Young swimmers preparing to take their mark in the 2017 Goodwill Meet hosted at the National Aquatic Centre, Liliendaal (file photo)
The Goodwill Meet is a developmental competition, which seeks to improve the performance of young swimmers within the Caribbean. The Meet began with just Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, and Suriname, but has grown to include St Lucia, Barbados, Grenada and The Bahamas. Every year, an honorary team is allowed to participate; this year’s team will hail from Jamaica.
When Guyana hosted the Meet last year, the home team copped third place with a total of 60 medals for the first time in decades. As such, the home team will be looking to up their performance this time around, despite competing without talents like Leon Seaton and Raekwon Noel – owing to their CARIFTA participation this year – local coaches have assured that the team are poised to do well.
The Coach of the Silver Sharks Speed Club, Haresh Bhagwan, has expressed confidence in the two swimmers who would be representing his club and Guyana. Although noting that he is disappointed that swimming sensation Leon Seaton Jr will not be able to compete, Bhagwan is of the opinion swimmers Joseph Matthews and Latisha Blair can get the job done.
Out of 10 events in the 13-14 age group, Matthews will be participating in four events inclusive of the 150 metres backstroke, 50 metres freestyle and 50 metres backstroke. The Coach noted that Matthews had the potential to excel in all the events; however, he was selected for the four, since he was an excellent swimmer and those events were the toughest.
“The only reason he did not get the opportunity to swim the other events is because after distributing the events, three swimmers per event, Joseph has shown consistently that he is the fastest in the four as opposed to the others and we need him well-rested to perform his utmost best,” Bhagwan explained.
On the other hand, his clubmate, Blair will be competing in all the events. The Coach said, “She is swimming all 10 based on her competitive level at her age group is much easier and she has a great stamina level. She can swim distances and she can swim 50m now and 50m next 10 minutes.”
Full list of participants
Girls:
8 and under: Jasmin Allen, Nia Burch-Smith, Zara Crane, Shareefah Lewis, Ariel Rodrigues, and Jessica Sookram
9-10: Kayla Hardy and Kayle Hardy
11-12: Althacy Hunte, Patrice Mahaica, Aleka Persaud, and Monique Watson
13-14: Latisha Blair, Giselle Crane, Amber DeGoeas, and Sofia Pinol
Boys:
8 and under: Macaiah Enoe, Karsten DeJonge, Dean Spencer, and Ricardo Spencer
9-10: Hashim Mohammed, Jeremy Sookram, and Jeron Sookram
11-12: Jaleel Anderson, Micah Chichester, Ethan Gonsalves, Paul Mahaica, and Vladimir Woodroffe
13-14: Sion Jeffers, Joseph Matthews, Vidjas Mohammed, and Sekhel Tzedeq
15-17: Andrew Jordon, Antonio Rodrigues, Daniel Scott, and Fitzroy Thom
