By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

WITH just two days to go before they head to Bridgetown, Barbados for the return of the Carifta Swimming Championships, head coach Travano McPhee said he’s confident that the Bahamas regain the team title once again.

The Bahamas has captured seven of the past eight and three straight titles before there was a break in the competition in 2020 due to the rise of the coronavirus pandemic.

And although he’s waiting on the full team to assemble in Nassau before they depart on Thursday, McPhee said he likes what he’s seen on paper and in the pool from the practices sessions with those based in New Providence.

“We’re looking good. We have a very strong team, a very disciplined team,” McPhee said. “It’s a very experienced team on the top end. Our seniors have a lot of facilities in the country and the pool itself.

“We are very familiar with our surroundings over there, so I think it will make it very comfortable, especially for the younger age groups, which should give us an edge over the other countries.”

The team will depart the capital on Thursday and after a chance to get in a practice session on Friday, they will begin competition on Saturday through Monday.

“We have a very strong team from top to bottom. We have some excellent team captains in Delaney Mizell, Erald Thompson, Zaylie-Elizabeth Thompson.and Jake Thompson, so we have excellent leadership up top,” said McPhee, who will be assisted by Grand Bahama’s Andy Loviett and Camron Bruney.

Despite the two year lay off from not having the competition staged, McPhee said it won’t affect the Bahamas in its quest to continue their dominance in the region.

“We were the first to put in our protocols during Covid-19 and our kids didn’t really miss a beat in the water,” he said. “I think that gives us a little edge on being ready.

“Not having the event for the past two years will have a little effect on a lot of swimmers, but we didn’t miss a beat. We had our team practices, our regular meets and stuff like that. So we’re going for four straight.”

The goal, according to McPhee, is to get out to an early start in the team standings at the end of the first and second days of competition. Once they establish that, they should be able to capture another title.

Emmanuel Gadson, a student of Spring Hill High School in South Carolina, is looking forward to making his debut for the Bahamas national team.

“I feel very good. I think I’m ready to swim. I’ve been training very hard over these past few weeks,” Gadson said. “It’s a great team. I love all of the people on it and I think we’re going to do very well.”

The 16-year-old Gadson will be entered in the boys 15-17 100 and 200 metre breaststroke where he’s posted personal best times of one minute and 10 seconds and 2:30 respectively. He has also swam 31 seconds on the 50m breast.

“I really want to go out there and place well,” said Gadson, who is eager to compete in his favourite event – the 200m breaststroke.

Also making her debut at Carifta is Lauren Bridgewater, who is entered in the girls 13-14 division in the 50 and 100m freestyle events. The 14-year-old ninth grader at Queen’s College, who swims for the Barracudas, has posted lifetime bests of 53 in the shorter race and 1:05 in the longer race.

“It’s a different experience for me because I never really expected it to happen,” she said. “But I’m excited. I think this year would have been my year to show what I could do because last year I was kind of struggling.

“So I used this year as my opportunity to get back into it and become one of the Carifta swimmers. I’m so glad that I finally made it.

“Looking at the makeup of the team, Bridgewater said she likes it because her teammates are “very lively and there’s a lot of excitement every day, positive vibes, and so I feel we should do very well when we get to Carifta.”

Erin Pritchard, an eight-grade student of St Andrew’s School, is also competing in the girls 13-14 division, and the triathlete is just as excited as everybody else to make her presence felt in Barbados.

“I think it’s a really great opportunity and I can meet so many new people,” Pritchard said. “I think it will be a really good experience to go with the team and so I think it will be a lot of fun.”

With the event returning after a two-year hiatus, Pritchard said she heard so much about the event and Barbados that she just wanted to be able to experience it all for herself.

“I don’t know what to expect. Anything could happen,” insisted Pritchard, who swims in all of the breastrokes with best times of 38 seconds in the 50m, 1:24 in the 100m and 3:00 in the 200m.

“But overall, I just want to have fun and spend time with everybody. I think the team is very strong. We all have our strength and so it’s been good training and competing with them.”

And Maxwell Daniels is an 11-12 competitor in the 100m backstroke (1:14), 50m freestyle (29), 50m butterfly (36) and 50m backstroke (33) The 13-year-old eighth grader at St Augustine’s College has been swimming for the past ten years, but will be making his first Carifta appearance.

“I feel confident that I will do very well,” he said. “I’m looking forward to having fun and getting to meet some new people from the other countries and to win some medals.

“This team has some very fast people who are capable of winning medals, having won medals from prior Carifta so I feel that we have a team that can win again. I want to win some medals too.”

Having represented the Bahamas before in four Goodwill Games, the Mako Aquatics competitor said he’s looking forward to the challenge as a first timer at Carifta.

With the remainder of the team coming in from Grand Bahama and from schools in the United States, McPhee said they hope to get in a solid practice on Thursday morning before they take off for Barbados later in the day.

“We just need to get the relay exchanges down pat and get the chemistry together,” he said. “Some of them haven’t competed on the national team in two years, so it’s just getting them acclimatised to this atmosphere again.

“From the first day of racing, we hope to be in great shape. The team looks strong. In my opinion, this is one of the better teams we have ever assembled. I think we’re ready to go and defend our title.”

Masking up Team Bahamas are the following:

Girls 11-12 - Christin-Alyssa Clarke, Samirah Donaldson, Seleste Gibson, Lelah Lewis and Trinity Pratt.

Girls 13-14 - Tia-Isabella Adderley, Lauren Bridgewater, Mia Patton, Erin Pritchard and Elle Theberge.

Girls 15-17 - Rhanishka Gibbs, Kyana Higgs, Rachel Lundy, Delaney Mizell, Keianna Moss and Zaylie-Elizabeth Thompson.

Boys 11-12 - Maxwell Daniels, William Farrington, Lenin Hamilton, Noah Knowles, Dijon Simmons and David Singh.

Boys 13-14 - Caleb Ferguson, Zion Gibson, Tristen Hepburn, Asher Johnson, Ayrton Moncur, Donald Saunders and Caden Wells.

Boys 15-17 - Jack Barr, Tristin Ferguson, Nigel Forbes, Emmanuel Gadson, Marvin Johnson, Jake Thompson and Erald Thompson III.

While McPhee, Bruney and Loveitt make up the coaching staff, the team manager is Andrea Strapp. Courtney Barr is the female chaperone and Patrick Ferguson is the male chaperone.

• This story has been corrected to say 'Bridgetown, Barbados' in the first paragraph.