Swimming Championships Kick Off This Week
The Validus Bermuda National Swimming Championships, hosted by the Bermuda Amateur Swimming Association [BASA] will take place from June 5-8 at the National Sports Centre [NSC].
Nick Strong, President of BASA, commented, “With the new facility at the NSC we are thrilled to be able to hold this meet in a long course format [50 metre pool]. Significant effort from our numerous parent volunteers in conjunction with Ben Smith, Bermuda National Coach, enabled us to have the meet recognized by FINA, the world governing body of aquatics, as approved for swimmers achieving qualifying times for Youth Olympic Games 2014 and World Championships 2015.”
Mr. Strong continued, “In spite of receiving the FINA recognition at a late date we are welcoming double digit numbers of overseas swimmers who can use this meet for qualification purposes. This is an exciting development that will boost the competition for our swimmers and demonstrates that Bermuda can deliver a meaningful international meet.
“We anticipate a successful meet and look forward to enticing more overseas swimmers in the future, further enhancing the island’s credibility and enabling our swimmers more exposure to a higher level of competition.
We welcome spectators to what will be an impressive meet, both to enjoy the competition and to support all of the dedicated swimmers.”
Commonwealth Games bound swimmers Roy-Allan Burch and Julian Fletcher will return to the island from their overseas training bases and will be joined by a trio of ladies looking to book their travel to Glasgow.
Rebecca Heyliger, Lisa Blackburn and Ashley Yearwood are all within range of qualifying times, and the Validus Bermuda National Swimming Championships represents their last chance before the Commonwealth Team is finalized.
The schedule of the meet is as follows:
- Thurs June 5 – evening Opening Ceremonies 5:45 pm
- Thurs June 5 – evening Timed Finals 6:00 pm
- Fri June 6 – evening Heats and 1 Timed Final 6:00 pm
- Sat June 7 – morning Heats 8:30 am
- Sat June 7 – evening Finals 5:00 pm
- Sun June 8 – morning Heats 8:30 am
- Sun June 8 – evening Finals 5:00 pm
Bermuda National Coach, Ben Smith, is eager to get started. He commented, “Our swimmers are dialed in, and ready to deliver strong performances. We’re also delighted to be running a long course meet so that we can give our Commonwealth bound swimmers another opportunity to get race experience in advance of Glasgow.”
Mr. Smith continued, “The overseas competitors from the US Virgin Islands, Cayman, and possibly India will make our team work to earn success, and the ability to be pushed head to head should deliver enhanced performances.
“We don’t want to lose sight of the task at hand this week, but we hope that this meet helps to establish our credibility at running a top class meet and attempting to bring in an even deeper pool of overseas talent in the years to come. Our swimmers are doing a fantastic job, but more head to head challenge is always advantageous to their development.”
Olympian Roy-Allan Burch is looking forward to being back home “It’s always a motivation to come back to the island to show how my training is going. This season I have been putting in some extremely hard work, and I am anticipating it paying big dividends in Glasgow.
“It’s also great to have two relay events [4x100 freestyle and 4x100 medley] as part of the schedule, and to allow Julian and me to partner with some of the younger, locally based swimmers.
“Even though I am living and training off the island most of the year I stay in close contact with Ben Smith about the performances of our up and coming talent. I’m really impressed by the results some of the locally based swimmers, and see a very bright future for Bermuda’s swimming programme.”
John Hendrickson, Director of Strategy, Risk Management and Corporate Development of Validus Holdings who are title sponsors and partners with BASA for the meet said, “Support of local events is very important to Validus, and we are delighted to be partnering with BASA for the inaugural long course meet in Bermuda’s history.
“This represents a wonderful development for the swimming community in Bermuda and the incorporation of overseas competitors is a great opportunity for the local swimmers. We wish all the competitors the very best, and hope to see some fine performances over the weekend.”
