Dylan Carter, Jonathan Ramkissoon and Joshua Romany are now in the tapering phase of training for the Fina World Junior Swimming Championships scheduled from Monday to August 31 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
The trio have been training together with the Davie Nadadores Swim Team of Florida from the start of August. Currently, they are involved in a training camp which started last Monday in Kuwait, to acclimatise to Middle Eastern conditions.
Carter, who has been a resident of the USA since September, had a very modest start in the sport and then blasted into age-group stardom in 2009 at the Carifta Swimming Championships in Aruba.
In dominant style, he won eight gold and one silver medal, achieved eight Carifta records and eight national records. He was also the most outstanding male swimmer in the 11‐12 division, and won the Landon Von Kanel award (for winning the 200m and 400m freestyle event). All of this was achieved in four days of swimming.
Carter went on to be a trailblazer in every Caribbean Championship thereafter. He was a finalist at the Commonwealth Youth Games (CYG 2011) in Isle of Man.
The 17-year-old even qualified for this year’s World Senior Championships held in Barcelona but opted to focus on World Junior event instead. In Dubai, he is carded to compete in the 50m butterfly, 50m and 100m backstroke as well as the 50m, 100m and 200m freestyle.
Carter said: “I feel confident going into the meet. I will not set any limits to what I can achieve but I hope to come out with best times in all my events. Training has been tough and the time change is still affecting us over here in Kuwait. This meet is the biggest meet of my life and it is what I have been focusing on for the past few months, so it has become a big deal for me.”
Romany joined Carter to train at Davie in mid-June. In 2006 he made his first national team in the 9-10 age division at the Goodwill Swim Meet in Suriname.
In 2007, he got a chance to represent T&T at Carifta in Jamaica. While predictably he did not win any individual medal at this meet, this became the impetus for this young man to etch his place in Caribbean history. Romany went on to set many national and Caribbean records in the butterfly, backstroke and freestyle events.
In 2010, he was the only national to qualify for the Junior Pan Pacific Championships in Maui, Hawaii. He made the finals in the 50m free event and established himself on the international stage having recorded one of the fastest times in the world for a 14-year-old. He also went on to set three new national records in the 50m, 100m and 200m free style events. In 2011, the World Juniors championships was in Lima, Peru; while he did not make the semifinals, he was the top 15-year-old in 50m and 100m free events and the second fastest 15-year-old in the 200m free event.
Like Carter, Romany was a finalist at Commonwealth Youth Games 2011. The following year, both Carter and Romany narrowly missed B cuts for the 2012 London Olympics. This year, in Dubai, Romany is expected to compete in the 50m, 100m and 200 freestyle, 50m and 100m butterfly and 100m backstroke. Romany has expressed confidence going into the meet.
“This is the hardest I have ever trained for a competition and I am optimistic. I am aiming to make every final and hopefully medal. Training is very challenging and a lot more than I am usually accustomed too,” Romany said.
Ramkissoon has had the least competitive swimming experience of all the athletes on the team. This 17-year-old made his first national team in 2010. He qualified for World Juniors during the height of his final year CAPE II examinations. He became the first T&T athlete under 18 years to swim faster than 30 seconds in the 50m breaststroke LC, and the first T&T male breaststroker to qualify for World Juniors since its inception in 2006.
A holder of two national records, Ramkissoon is finishing his age-group career without that elusive regional individual gold medal, but the achievement of World Juniors qualification far surpasses that precious metal. Ramkissoon arrived at Davie on August 3 to train alongside and Carter and Romany. He would compete in the 50m, 100m and 200m breaststroke events.
Ramkissoon says he is “very pumped” for the meet.
“Training has been great so far with fellow Trinis and the rest of the Caribbean guys,” said Ramkissoon. “The meet is another step in my swimming career and a link between junior and senior swimming. My aim is to achieve personal bests in my events. Being at the world championships is huge for me, and I am giving my all for my country.”