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By Neto Baptiste
Head coach of the successful Antigua and Barbuda national swim team, Wayne Mitchell, said swimmers exceeded his expectations at the just concluded Carifta Aquatics Championships held in Trinidad.
Speaking to media on the team’s return to Antigua on Wednesday, Mitchell said that although it was no secret the team was a strong one going in, the athletes found that extra ounce of energy to get the job done effectively.
“We knew that we were going with a strong team and the expectations were far reached because every single day we had to hit the ground running. We picked up three medals on day one, so it was a good start to the whole thing and set the standard for the rest of the meet and up to the last day it was electrifying. For me, it was obviously the girls 15-17 and to see them come home with a relay medal was really good because they were not seeded that strong and they just emptied everything they had left after four days of intense racing,” he said.
Team Antigua and Barbuda won a total of 17 medals at the championships with four gold, seven silver and six bronze. Alessandro Bazzoni, who competed in the 11-12 age group, was the country’s top performer with six medals, winning three gold, two silver and a bronze.
Mitchell also commended the swimmers for being able to quickly adjust to the 50 meters pool in Trinidad as they would have trained in the lone 25 meters pool available to them here on island.
“You need good capacity to race in a 50 meters [pool] because it’s less walls and less turns and we had a couple of kids that never swam in a 50 meters before but they still did extremely well. It doesn’t really affect your performance and it doesn’t make you swim bad or anything like that. Swimming in a 50 meters pool is just different and honestly, if we had that to train in then it wouldn’t be so different when we arrive and they did their job in terms of that and getting themselves ready. They knew what they were getting into to race in a 50 meters pool and that they had to build better capacity and by capacity I just mean a good solid pace so they don’t get lost in the races,” the coach said.
Bahamas finished atop the medal count with 74 in total, claiming 27 gold, 23 silver and 24 bronze. Trinidad and Tobago placed second with 57 medals, winning 23 gold, 17 silver and 17 bronze while Jamaica ended the championships in third with 21 gold, 19 silver and 16 bronze for a total haul of 56.
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