Youth Olympic gold medallist Christian Homer is scheduled to splash off in his only swim of the four-day Blue Waters Amateur Swimming Association of T&T (ASATT) December Invitational Swimming Championships this evening from 6 pm, the opening day of the meet. Homer is the top-seed in the 15 & over boys’ 50m backstroke in the competition that the world governing body for the sport, FINA, has sanctioned as an Olympic qualifying event. The Invitational is also the largest age-group swim meet in the Caribbean.
Homer, one of 45 swimmers representing the host club and defending champions Marlins, is among 400 swimmers overall from 29 clubs (both foreign and local) who will gather at the Morne Coco Road Olympic-sized facility in Westmoorings. Earlier this year on December 3, at the AT&T Winter National Championships in Atlanta, Homer, currently based with the Bolles Sharks in USA, achieved a personal best time of 56.86 seconds in his fifth place finish in the men’s 100m backstroke C Final, a time which was 0.56 seconds off the Olympic B standard time.
Other Olympic aspirants including Commonwealth Youth finalists 16-year-old Joshua Romany and 15-year old Dylan Carter will also splash into action at the meet, with the latter competing with Homer for sole consideration of the men’s 100m backstroke Olympic B standard, which allows only one swimmer per country to participate in the event. Besides Carter and Homer, fellow Commonwealth Youth finalist Kristen Julien (girls 13 to 14) and Worlds representative Joshua Mc Leod (boys 15 and over) will also dive into action at the competition
In a history-making appearance, three Venezuelan teams—Emile Friedman, Club de Natacion Federados Sport Center Los Naranjos and Altamira Tennis Club—are making their debut at the meet. The Venezuelan teams, all hailing from Caracas, are three of 14 foreign teams coming to this country, with the remainder representing the Caribbean from Jamaica, St Lucia, Barbados, Grenada and Guyana. At a media conference last Thursday, Marlins secretary Davina Stephenson announced Blue Waters gold sponsorship of the meet which will be in addition to support from silver sponsors Republic Bank and Scotiabank to help offset the estimated $50,000 price tag of hosting the meet. Vemco, Irie Bites, Mario’s Pizza and Albrosco were also announced as part sponsors.
Source: www.guardian.co.tt