National Coach Ben Smith Commends Swimmers
National Swimming Coach Ben Smith spoke in regards to the Bermuda Swim Teams performance at the recently held 2010 Commonwealth Games in India. His full statement follows below:
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Bermuda Olympic committee for organizing a very successful trip to India for the 19th Commonwealth Games. Bermuda had a very good contingent at the games and we had good support from members of the BOA and Youth and Sport. It was especially good to have both the Minister of sport and the Premier present at the games to show their support for our athletes.
The swimming portion of the games took place over 6 days in a very impressive brand new aquatic center. The facility had a 10 lane 50 meter pool, 10 lane 25 meter diving facility with all the required boards and a 6 lane 50 meter pool. All of our swimmers were very impressed with the facility and felt good in their preparation and racing.
This season has been interesting for swimming as it is the first year that we have competed since the suits were banned in January. Many of the times across the world this season have been significantly slower and we have not seen the continuous breaking of world records. Our swimmers have had to adjust to the change in their times without the suits. I was very pleased with what they were able to do at a meet of this caliber with many of the top swimmers in the world present at these games.”
In most meets each country only is allowed to have 2 swimmers participate in the semis or the finals. At Commonwealth games they are allowed to have 3 participants which gave more opportunity for the large countries to have multiple swimmers reach the finals.
Nick Thomson had a solid meet but was disappointed with his times and will be looking to improve over this upcoming season. His times were at his best before the suits and he entered the meet fresh out of preseason for Florida State University.
Kiera Aitken continues to be one of Bermuda’s most consistent athletes and showed her ability by reaching the semis in both the 50 and 100 back stroke. Although the swims were not her best for the season she did match up well against some very strong competition.
Roy-Allan Burch had two very good swims in the 100 and 50 freestyle events. His 100 time was just over a tenth of a second from the Bermuda National record that he set the previous year wearing the now illegal suits. In the 50 free he was 6 hundredth of a second away from the record that he also had set in the now illegal suits. This bodes well for the training that he has been doing over the past year and for what he is planning to do in preparation for Worlds and Pan American Games.
In all, I am proud with the performances and I think that we are set up sell for these athletes to continue on their journey to the 2012 Games in London.”
