A confident TT team heads to Barbados on Thursday for the Goodwill Swim Meet.
Trinidad and Tobago will be seeking our fifth consecutive victory at the Annual Goodwill Swim Meet which splashes off this Friday in Barbados.
The team is being managed by Nefertiti Acosta-Yates with the Head Coach being Mark Alexis.
Multiple CAC gold-medalist Dylan Carter, who also represented T&T at Goodwill back in 2008, was present at the last team session on Saturday at the Aquatic Centre, and gave words of advice to the young athletes.
The Goodwill Swim Meet is a developmental meet where swimmers who have represented Trinidad and Tobago at CARIFTA, CCCAN and higher level meets, are excluded. Carter, who would have been eligible for CARIFTA in 2008, did not qualify for CARIFTA.
Following the Goodwill experience in 2008, in Carter’s second year in the 11-12 age group in 2009, he swam to eight Carifta records, two national records, eight gold and one silver medal at his first CARIFTA in Aruba.
On Saturday, Carter relayed to the athletes his journey from the Goodwill Swim Meet in 2008.
He expressed his disappointment about being dropped from the national water polo team in 2008 but said he decided to attend swim training in afternoons. His coach at the time, Franz Huggins, encouraged him to try out for the Goodwill Swim Team and the National Goodwill Trials was his first competitive swim meet.
Eight years later, he was in a World Senior Championships final.
He encouraged the athletes to use disappointments to their advantage as it can open doors for them, and acknowledged the Goodwill Swim Meet as one of the stepping stones to his success.
Meanwhile, both Acosta-Yates and Alexis are confident of T & T’s chances of defending their title
“The pressure is on for us to deliver our fifth consecutive victory. However, we are confident that we have a combination of experience and talent, and an overall enthusiasm that will make us a force to be reckoned with,” she said.
Alexis was more assured of the team’s prospects.
“The team has great depth all round with a very solid composition of athletes, especially with those who are knocking on the doors of Carifta and CCCAN,” he said.
“Based on performances at National Age Group Short Course, the team selected and coaches working behind the scenes, I’m looking forward to fast swims, top three finishes and when the ‘dust settles’ TTO with the top spot.”
The team departs on Thursday at 8:50pm and the swimmers will complete the last of their meet preparation with their clubs this week as their last national training session was held at the National Aquatic Centre last Saturday.
The team is captained by 15-17 age group athletes Brandon Coombs and Bianca Prevatt and will include eight and under girls Alyssa Reid, Netania Edwards, Asia-Marie Pouchet and Tamia Archibald.
The eight and under boy’s team will be comprised of Rylan Thomas, Adam Scoon, Alejandro Agard and Zaheed Walter.
The 9-10 girls are Keryn Burke, Shauna Nelson, Madara Edwards, Atiyah Walter while the 9-10 boys will be Giovanni Rivas, Zachary Anthony, Liam Carrington and Jacob Cox.
The 11-12 girls will be represented by Kiara Goodridge, Amari Ash, Sharana Balkaran, Daniella Blackman with the boys being represented by Dillon Jaglal, Nathan Pascall, Keron Kotiah, and Justin Hassranah.
In the 13 - 14 girls, TT will field Isabella Edwards, Patricia-Lee Ravello, Naomi Walters and Jaedra Douglas with the boys’ team being comprised of Aaron Stuart, Gardel Elcock, Nicholas Francois and Prince Moreau.
The 15-17 girls will have Kami Morean, Courtney Lawrence, Bianca Prevatt, and Analee Maharaj with Jordon McMillan, Brandon Coombs, Dante Williams and Jamaal Pascall representing the boys.
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Sun Yang verdict not expected before mid-January
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) does not expect to issue a decision in the World Anti-Doping Agency's (WADA) case against Sun Yang until mid-January after the swimmer's public hearing was beset by translation issues.
WADA appealed to CAS after Sun was not punished by swimming's governing body FINA following an inquiry into an allegation that he and his team smashed vials of blood with a hammer in front of anti-doping officials after an out-of-competition test at his home in September last year.
Sun's November 15 hearing was marred by interpretation problems throughout and there will be no decision handed down by CAS before 2020 as the involved parties work to settle on a transcript of proceedings.
A statement from CAS read: "The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) heard the appeal filed by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) against the Chinese swimmer Sun Yang and the Federation Internationale de Natation (FINA) on Friday, 15 November 2019 during a public hearing held in Montreux, Switzerland which was also live streamed via the CAS website, giving all interested persons across the globe the opportunity to follow the proceedings live.
"Although the organisation and the schedule of the public hearing was to the satisfaction of the arbitrators and parties' counsels, some concerns were raised with respect to the quality of the interpretation of Mr. Yang's testimony. It must be emphasised that the CAS regulations provide that if a hearing is to be held, the CAS Panel may allow a party to use a language other than that chosen for the arbitration, on the condition that such party provides, at its own cost, interpretation into and from the official language of the arbitration.
"It is for this reason that, since the language of the proceedings was English, the parties agreed on a private interpretation service to assist Mr. Yang and his witnesses. In order to maintain its independence and neutrality, the CAS cannot engage in the hiring of external interpreters.
"The parties are currently preparing an agreed-upon written transcript of the proceedings, including a full translation of Mr. Yang's testimony, which the panel will work from when deliberating and preparing the Arbitral Award. In view of these circumstances, the Arbitral Award is not expected to be issued before mid-January 2020."
Sun was banned for three months in 2014 having tested positive for trimetazidine, a prohibited substance that has since been downgraded from stimulant to modulator of cardiac metabolism.
His wins in the 200 metres and 400m freestyle at the World Swimming Championships earlier this year saw Duncan Scott and Mack Horton each refuse to share the podium with him.
Sun, China's most decorated swimmer, has won three Olympic gold medals to go with his 11 world titles.
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