SVL on board for Carifta swim meet
SUPPORT for Jamaica’s swimmers ahead of the April 3-6 Carifta Championships at the National Stadium is flowing in with Supreme Ventures Limited (SVL) contributing $200,000 Friday before a training session at the University of the West Indies Pool.
Corporate Events Co-ordinator of SVL Jhanelle Davis, presented the token cheque to president of the Amateur Swimming Association of Jamaica, joining title sponsors Flow Jamaica, which backed the team with $2 million, and Ensure, Carimed, whose nutritional support will amount to $50,000. All three sponsors were present.
Meanwhile, Annette Fearon has been brought in as team manager for the Carifta Swimmers, while Xavier Phillips will replace Barak Goren in the boys 11-12 category.
Local swim boss John Eyre said his goal was to have swimmers training at the National Stadium by “Monday, or Tuesday, the very latest”.
With the pool down for just under a year, Eyre said it was full of water and the treatment process had begun.
“There is a lot of soil, a lot of dirt in the system, so we are having to vacuum all of that and filter the water to get the quality to where we need it. Obviously, a lot of chemicals would have to be put in to get the sanitation to the level that is acceptable of human use,” he explained.
Meanwhile, Eyre said the overseas-based swimmers would be arriving one, two or three days before the meet as they have been training with their own coaches while they go to school.
He deems Jamaica getting third place at next month’s championships as a satisfactory performance.
“I will be happy with third considering everything, you know when you have home-field advantage amazing things can happen. It’s a tall order to win, we have Martinique, Guadeloupe, Trinidad, all three very strong teams and it appears that they are coming with their strong swimmers.
“They don’t like to come to Jamaica and lose, so they gonna make sure they come will all guns firing,” Eyre added.
“We always challenge our team and I’ll guarantee you they’re are going to outdo themselves in the pool, performance wise, but we are in a growing phase right now, everything goes in cycles… but we’ve seen positive things happening.
“With Swim Jamaica growing, and more children coming in to aquatic activities, I look towards a great future,” he explained.