The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

THERE’S no better feeling for an athlete than to look up in the stands and see and hear their parents cheering for them when they are competing. For Virginia Stamp, she can now only cherish those memories her mother Rhonda Bullard-Stamp left behind.

Saturday was a special day for Stamp at the Betty Kelly Kenning Aquatic Centre as her swim club, the Alpha Aquatics, hosted the Rhonda Bullard-Stamp Swim Meet in memory of her mother, who passed away on August 2.

“I’m very appreciative of the effort and all that they put into it,” said Stamp, of the club that designed special printed t-shirts that were worn during the two sessions of the meet. “I felt very good.”

Stamp, a 13-year-old ninth grader at St Andrew’s, helped lead Alpha to a second place finish in the one-day meet by collecting a total of 34 points in winning the three events she competed in, Alpha picked up 296 points to trail the Barracudas Swim Club that took top honours with 350.

Swift Swimming came in a close third with 208, while the Dolphins were fourth with 106 and the Sea Bees Swim Club a distant fifth with 40.

Stamp, one of the swimmers in the country, dedicated her performance to her mom, winning the girls 11-12 100 metre breaststroke in one minute and 35.12 seconds over Katherine Slatter (1:40.34) and Kristen Colebrokke (1:43.27), both of the Barracudas. She also claimed the victory in the 50m back in 35.14 ahead of Swift’s Dylan Roberts (38.55) and Dolphins’ Madison Davis (39.05) and added the 100m backstroke to her collection in a time of 1:18.21, followed by Roberts (1:26.12) and her Alpha team-mate Madisyn Major (1:51.78).

“I felt I did good. I know she was pleased as she always is when she was alive,” said Stamp of her mother, who could normally be seen on the pool deck cheering as loudly as she can for her daughter.

In addition to Stamp, Alpha got some good performances from other female competitors Carissa Davis, Zoe McCarroll, Andreas Weech, Zaylie-Elizabreth Thompson and Taja Scriven. They were joined by male competitors Gabriel Encinar, Taro Sears, Malik Hepburn, Tristan Thompson and Jake Thompson.

“We did pretty well. We had over 20 new best times, which was pretty good, plus the meet was a special one for us and for Virginia,” said Rafael Sbrissa, Alpha’s head coach. “We are building up to the end of the season when the nationals is held. But we looked very good today. I was very pleased with how the swimmers performed.”

The Barracudas, with some outstanding performances from Davirelle Butler, Sian Longley, Salene Gibson, Rachel Lundy and Mandia Roberts on the girls’ side and Samuel Gibson, Meshach Roberts, Kevon Lockhart, Mark Darling and Utoy Wong on the boys’ side, used the meet as a tune-up for their meet this weekend and the trip to Plantation, Florida to compete in two weeks.

“We swum well. The turnout was good. We wanted to support Alpha and this meet in honour of Rhonda and her daughter Victoria,” said Barracudas coach Dorian Roach. “This was just a chance for us to see where we are going into our next two meets, so I was very pleased with the performances.”

If the performances were any indication, Roach said the ‘Cudas should be ready for the challenge that will come this weekend with teams from both Grand Bahama and Abaco expected in town for the Family Guardian Invitational on Friday and Saturday.

Swift Swimming also intends to make the trip to Plantation and assistant coach Allan Murray said the team gave a good account of themselves and so they are eager to see how they do when the competition heats up in a couple of weeks.

“We were pretty pleased because even though this was just the third meet for the year and the second long course meet, we had some of our swimmers competing in different events,” he said.

“This was a good starting point for the season. We still have some work to do. But we are heading off to Plantation, so we have some more hard training to go before they take a break to get ready for the meet.”

Swift’s appearance in the meet was led by Anya MacPhail, Dylan Roberts, Alexandria Patton, Aaleyah Evans and Keianna Moss on the girls’ side and Joshua Roberts, Alec Sands, Hugh Bartlett III, DaVante Carey, Tristan Russell and Michael Walkine on the boys’ side.

As a former elite swimmer who represented the Bahamas at the Olympic Games, Murray said he has been pleased with his transition and he’s enjoying what he always liked to do and that is being around the pool, even more so with his 12-year-old son now competing.

He was also pleased to see Kimberly Knowles making her contribution as well as a coach.

“I know that the Sea Bees will be utilising her for coaching, so they are lucky to have her. I’m looking for big things from the Sea Bees between now and the Nationals,” he said.

Knowles, also a former elite swimmer who has represented the Bahamas at a number of international meets, said she is elated to be back in swimming, working with the Sea Bees.

“It’s wonderful because I’m still working with the kids and I’m still swimming and that is keeping me in the sport,” she said. “I had the opportunity to do a lot of travelling to compete, so it’s actually nice for me to be able to give back to the younger swimmers.”

So far, Knowles said she was pleased with what she has seen from the competitors and she’s looking forward to their next appearances this weekend.

The top swimmers from the Sea Bees in the meet were Alexandria Thompson, Gabrielle McDonald, Trinity Pennerman, Gadville McDonald and Keith Lloyd Jr.