The Tribune

FOR the last 10 years, Swift Swimming has made its presence felt at the annual Winter Swimming Championships in Plantation, Florida. Swift had 12 out of 19 swimmers (or 63 per cent of the team) score in the finals. It scored 197.5 points to finish 21st out of a field of 50 teams that were mostly from South Florida, according to a press release.

There were three other local clubs from the Bahamas that also competed at the championships. The Barracuda Swim Club finished 23rd with 186.5 points, Alpha Aquatics finished 31st with 57 points and the Dolphin Swimming Club was 46th with three points.

“The meet had a new format with the 13 and older swimmers at 8:30am and 12 and younger swimmers at noon. The heats finished around 4pm and then the finals started again at 5pm which made for a long day.

“Each night, including the Thursday evening session, had Swift swimmers in the finals with Simone Sturrup finishing with two silvers in both the 50 free and 50 fly and Luke Kennedy Thompson swimming for a bronze in the 50 breast. Swift had swimmers scoring in all strokes and all distances up to and including the 400IM,” said the release.

Those who travelled as Swift were Tremaine Allen, Jemarco Armbrister, Cecily Bowe, Celia Campbell, Lilly Higgs, Albury Higgs, Kevon Lockhart, Peter Morley, Jacob Roach, Joshua Roberts, Tristan Russell, Victoria Russell, Tyler Russell, Simone Sturrup, Luke-Kennedy Thompson, Mark Anthony Thompson, Maya Thompson, Nathan Thompson, and Samantha Williams. Swift also had relays in four age groups, including 9 & 10 boys with Tristan, Mark, Nathan, and Jacob, 11 & 12 boys with Tyler, Peter, Luke, and Joshua, 11 & 12 girls with Celia, Lilly, Victoria, and Samantha, and 13 & 14 girls with Maya, Albury, Simone and Tremaine.

“The Winter Championships allows the Bahamian swimmers to compete against some of the swimmers that they will face at Carifta. It also allows our swimmers to swim against the best in South Florida based on their age at the meet, rather than their age group based upon January 2012.

“Swift also had a high point trophy winner in Anya MacPhail at the Freeport Invitational Swim meet on the same weekend. Anya won the 9 &10 girls top honours as she won all five of her races.