The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

The focus switches today on the XXI Caribbean Island Swimming Championships (CISC) with more than 20 countries in town to compete in the four-day event at the Betty Kelly Kenning Swim Complex.

The biennial swim championships, which got started in 1976, will include teams from Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Barbados, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Curacao, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, St Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad & Tobago, Turks and Caicos and the Virgin Islands.

While the Bahamas will be out for regional glory with a 69-member team on deck, the majority of the visiting countries will be looking for qualifying performances from their swimmers for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Michael Walker, coach of a two-member team from Guatemala, said they have had a wonderful experience so far, but now it’s time to get to work.

“We are here to try and qualify for the Olympics,” he said. “Gabriela (Santis) has a B mark, but we are hoping that she can meet the A mark so that she can go to the Olympics. This is a great meet and a great facility, so this gives us a nice chance to try and qualify.

“It’s so good to come to such a high level of competition so that our swimmers can try to achieve their goals. We’re looking forward to them doing very well.”

While Santis has done the B standard in the women’s 200 and 400 metre freestyle, Kevin Avila is entered in the 50 and 100m free.

Surprised that it’s not as humid here as she anticipated, Santis said she’s eager to see if she can achieve her goal of securing her berth in Rio in August.

“Hopefully I want to qualify here. I have the B cut in the 400, but I want to get the A cut so that I can definitely go to the Olympics,” she said. “You can expect for me to swim fast. “

Aruba will be represented by 16 swimmers and assistant coach Monica Platiau said they only brought a few competitors for the 13-14 division, but the majority of their swimmers will compete in the 15-17 division.

“All of our swimmers, we expect them to be in the finals and most of them to win medals,” Platiau said. “We have strong relay teams in the 15-17 and we have two swimmers who have already qualified and two swimmers who are close to qualifying.”

Allison Ponson and Mikel Schreuders have qualified respectively in the women’s 50m and the men’s 200m free. Gordy Groters, in the 100m breast and Daniella Vandenberg, in the 100m free, are on the border line of making the Olympic cut.

Four swimmers, two male and two females, will carry the flag for Honduras. They are Karen Vilorio in the 100 and 200m back, Sara Pastrana in the 100, 200 and 400m free, Allan Gutierrez in the 50 and 100m free and 100m fly and Julio Hirrego Jr in the 100 and 200m breast and the 200 and 400m individual medley (IM).

“These are our best four swimmers and they are looking to qualify for Rio,” said Jose Gonzalez, the head coach for Honduras. “We are expecting them to do very well in the competition and make their qualifying standards.

“We know that this competition is a very good one and it is the last chance for them to make their times, so if the four of them can qualify, that would be very good. But if only one male and one female do, we would be very happy. “

With one of the youngest, albeit small, competing here is St Vincent & the Grenadines. Their competitors are Alex Joachim, Shane Cadogam, Cruz Halbich and Shne Joachim, the only female.

“One of the swimmers is new to this level of competition, so he’s here for the experience, but we stand a chance of medalling in the breaststroke events with brother and sister Alex and Shne Joachim,” said coach Kyle Dougam. “We are definitely going to make some finals and possibly win some medals.”

Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace and Joanna Evans, the two Olympic qualifiers, will be the Bahamas team with all of their swimmers fresh from their participation in the RBC National Swimming Championships over the weekend at the stadium.

Two other competitors, Vereance ‘Elvis’ Burrows and Dustin Tynes, have done the B standards in their respective events and if they don’t make the A cut, they will have to wait on FINA to release the final list of entries for participation in Rio.

This is the first time that the Bahamas will be hosting CISC. Andy Knowles is the head coach of Team Bahamas, which will field full squads in the boys’ and girls’ 11-12, 13-14 and 15-and-over categories.

The competition is slated to begin 9am today with the evening session at 6pm. The big event wraps up on Sunday.