The Tribune

MONTHS after it travelled to Florida to compete in its first international meet, the Blue Waves Swim Club is all set to host its inaugural local sprint invitational at the Betty Kelly Kenning national swim complex on Saturday.

Blue Waves Swim Club head coach Dellan Brown said he is looking forward to an exciting day of swimming.

“We expect our swimmers to perform well. They have been putting in the work,” he said. “Of course, they will be going up against some of the best swimmers of the island, so there will be lots of exciting competition.

“Some of them will be swimming competitively for the first time. We’re excited to see what kind of times they will produce. We’re also happy to be getting our club’s name out there. We’ve been participating in swim meets for the past year, but as you know, this is our first major swim invitational.”

Brown noted that club members also picked up some experience when it competed in the Jupiter Dragons Invitational Meet in Florida in April. He said this is an opportunity for swimmers to improve on their performances.

Swimmers will compete in the 400m free, 200m free, breaststroke and IM, 100m breaststroke, freestyle, and backstroke, 50 m butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle. Races will kick off at 9am. Blue Waves Swim Club president Cecil Newry said the invitational will be the first of many.

“It’s a proud moment for us as a club being just a little over a year old,” Newry said. “I still remember us starting out with a team of 12 swimmers with the majority of them being six-year-olds.

“So to be in the position where we are now able to host a swim invitational and have swimmers entered in all of the events, we are indeed proud. I must add that we could not have done this without the help of our sponsors. The business community and the parents of our swim club really stepped up. We are grateful.”

The meet is sponsored by Pure Water Systems, Bahamas Vision Centre, SinDaRoc Investments, Rochelle Butler and Island Games, among others.

Newry said Aliv also sponsored a Samsung S8, which will be raffled at the event.

Blue Waves Swim Club operates out of St Anne’s School and is home to approximately 30 swimmers, aged five to 17.