Shawn Pouchet, Pres­i­dent of the Aquat­ic Sports As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T (ASATT) says he is keen for the ac­tion to start in the 38th edi­tion of the Carif­ta Aquat­ics Cham­pi­onships which splash­es off at the beau­ti­ful Na­tion­al Aquat­ic Cen­tre in Bal­main, Cou­va from 9 am Sat­ur­day.

The swim­ming com­pe­ti­tion will take place at Cou­va un­til Tues­day (April 22) while the Open Wa­ter will come off at Five Is­land Beach, Williams Bay Ch­aguara­mas Trinidad on Wednes­day, (April 23).

Speak­ing fol­low­ing a tech­ni­cal meet­ing of of­fi­cials rep­re­sent­ing the com­pet­ing na­tions which was at­tend­ed by World Aquat­ics pres­i­dent Cap­tain Hu­sain Al Musal­lam, World Aquat­ics Ex­ec­u­tive Di­rec­tor Brent Now­ic­ki, Trea­sur­er Dale Neuburg­er, Pan Amer­i­can Aquat­ics Pres­i­dent Mau­reen Croes, swim coach ad­vi­sor James Gib­son and T&T’s three-time World Short Course Cham­pi­onship medal win­ner Dy­lan Carter, Pouchet said the lo­cal swim­ming as­so­ci­a­tion was ready to stage the re­gion's top swim­ming event.

In ad­di­tion to host T&T, reign­ing cham­pi­ons Ba­hamas, Aru­ba, Bar­ba­dos, Bermu­da, Bonaire, British Vir­gin Is­lands, Cay­man Is­lands, Cu­ra­cao, Do­mini­ca, French Guiana, Grena­da, Guyana, Haiti, Ja­maica, Mar­tinique, St Kitts & Nevis, St Lu­cia, St Maarten, St Mar­tin, St Vin­cent and the Grenadines, Suri­name, T&T, Turks & Caicos, and US Vir­gin Is­lands.

T&T last won the Carif­ta Swim­ming Cham­pi­onship ti­tle held un­der the aus­pices of the Caribbean As­so­ci­a­tion of Na­tion­al Olympic Com­mit­tees in 2010 in Kingston, Ja­maica, to keep hold of the ti­tle won a year ear­li­er in Sa­vane­ta, Aru­ba.

Since then, Guade­loupe won the next three edi­tions in 2011, 2012, and 2013 fol­lowed by the dom­i­nance of Ba­hamas win­ning the next eight of nine edi­tions in (2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023, and 2024 with Mar­tinique man­ag­ing to break the trend in 2016 while the 2020 and 2021 edi­tions were can­celled to the COVID virus pan­dem­ic.

Last year in Ba­hamas, T&T cap­tured 58 medals (24 gold, 15 sil­ver, and 19 bronze) to fin­ish sec­ond on the medal ta­ble, be­hind cham­pi­ons and host Ba­hamas among the 25 coun­tries while in 2023, T&T led by Nikoli Black­man, a three-time Com­mon­wealth Youth Games (CYG) gold medal win­ner, and Zarek Wil­son who al­so won three medals at the CYG and Car­ring­ton se­cured 54 medals (22 gold, 16 sil­ver, and 16) for 534 points to fin­ish third, be­hind cham­pi­ons Ba­hamas who cap­tured 85 medals (37 gold, 27 sil­ver, and 21 bronze) for 1,113 points, and Cay­man Is­lands fin­ished in the sec­ond spot with 53 medals (25 gold, 16 sil­ver, and 12 bronze) for 752 points.

This year, T&T will be rep­re­sent­ed by a 36-mem­ber team with Car­ring­ton, Fer­gu­son and fel­low USA-based Cather­ine Di­ef­fen­thaller ex­pect­ed to be at the front of the medal charge to­geth­er with Liam Roberts, and Zachary An­tho­ny.

Look­ing ahead to the four-day meet Pouchet said, "We are host­ing the 38th edi­tion of the Carif­ta Aquat­ics Cham­pi­onships at the beau­ti­ful Na­tion­al Aquat­ic Cen­ter and right now we are in a good po­si­tion where we are one day be­fore the wa­ter splash­es off and the fa­cil­i­ties is ready and the swim­mers are ready.

"We are now analysing the tech­ni­cal meet­ing with the coach­es to en­sure every­body is on the same page and we are look­ing for­ward to some keen com­pe­ti­tion."

Quizzed as to the host na­tion's chances of de­thron­ing Ba­hamas, a con­fi­dent Pouchet replied, "T&T has a strong chance, and I'm re­al­ly hop­ing that we get some break-out per­for­mances from our younger kids, and our old­er more sea­soned cam­paign­ers do their thing in the pool and bring home some glo­ry to T&T."

Pouchet said he was al­so look­ing for­ward to the home crowd giv­ing the lo­cal swim­mers a lift which may help in com­ing out on top over the course of the cham­pi­onship.

He said, "It has been some time since we have won this com­pe­ti­tion since 2010 to be ex­act and Ba­hamas is here and their pres­ence is felt and we are ready as we want T&T pub­lic to come out and sup­port and show we can ri­val them as strong as we can be­cause that team sup­port from the crowd will def­i­nite­ly go a long way in help­ing us to achieve our gold of bring­ing the ti­tle back home."

Carter al­so said he was re­al­ly ex­cit­ed to have the Carif­ta Games here in T&T for the first time in a long time.

He not­ed, "The last time we won Carif­ta Aquat­ics was back in 2010 and I was an ath­lete. So, I'm re­al­ly op­ti­mistic for the ath­letes this week­end and I hope that we can bring it home."

With re­spect to his trip home as part of the World Aquat­ics con­tin­gent, Carter said, "I'm al­so in­cred­i­bly ho­n­oured to be here with a con­tin­gent from World Aquat­ics in­clud­ing the Pres­i­dent of World Aquat­ics, and I think it's amaz­ing to have him here and it re­al­ly shows his com­mit­ment to our re­gion and the ath­letes of our re­gion at our biggest de­vel­op­men­tal meet in the Caribbean.

"I'm here with the World Aquat­ics as a mem­ber of the Ath­letes Com­mis­sion and I am the voice of the ath­letes to the ex­ec­u­tive and specif­i­cal­ly the voice of the ath­letes in our re­gion to the ex­ec­u­tive.

"So. I have been here with the Pres­i­dent and trav­el­ling around the re­gion (Cay­man Is­lands, Mex­i­co, Pana­ma, Aru­ba and T&T) with him for the past week or so try­ing to make our ath­letes' voic­es heard with him and mak­ing sure that we are con­sid­ered in all the de­ci­sion-mak­ing process­es."

Asked what some of the dis­cus­sions he had with the World Aquat­ics boss were cen­tred around, Carter not­ed his ex­pe­ri­ence as a young swim­mer in the Caribbean to that of swim­mers in oth­er parts of the world.

"We ex­pe­ri­ence unique chal­lenges in the re­gion in terms of train­ing and coach­ing and in some cas­es, fa­cil­i­ties. Now, we have a beau­ti­ful fa­cil­i­ty here now in Cou­va, but, when I was a kid that wasn't al­ways so, and all these things are im­por­tant things for him to con­sid­er for the re­gion and he has.

"The re­gion has im­proved a lot in terms of fa­cil­i­ties, and I have been for­tu­nate to see some of the plans for the up­com­ing fa­cil­i­ties in the re­gion, so I just know there are great things in store for the re­gion in terms of aquat­ics and we are on­ly go­ing to get bet­ter."

To­day, from 9 am the morn­ing ses­sion, will splash off at Cou­va with the pre­lim­i­nary heats in the 13-14 and 15-17 800 me­tres freestyles, along with the 200m breast­stroke, 50m back­stroke, 100m but­ter­fly, 1,500m freestyle and 4x100m freestyle re­lays in the 11-12, 13-14 and 15-17 age-groups.

T&T swim­mers in heats Sat­ur­day

800m freestyle: Mare­na Mar­tinez, Zara Per­si­co, Aimee Le Blanc, Keryn Burke

1,500m freestyle: Zachary An­tho­ny, Isa­iah Alexan­der,

200m breast­stroke: Za­lay­har Lewis, Ra'el Ana­tol Mor­gan, Tay­lan Di­az, Eli­hu Brown, Bre­an­na Bel­mar, Rae­gan Bel­mar, Ethan Mc-Mil­lan-Cole, Jadon Ramdeen, Cather­ine Di­ef­fen­thaller, Anya Davis, Liam Roberts, An­pherne Bernard,

50m back­stroke: Za­lay­har Lewis, Za­hara An­tho­ny, Sha­ni­ah Jag­gasar, Eli­hu Brown, Khris­t­ian Allen, Dim­itri Phillip, Tay­lor Marchan, Zara Per­si­co, Rae­gan Bel­mar, Shi­an Grif­fith, Jadon Ramdeen, Zion Ap­ple­whaite, Zuri Fer­gu­son, Keryn Burke, Anya Davis, Liam Car­ring­ton, Dar­ren Bel­fon, Evan Gillard Bruce, Za­hara An­tho­ny,

100m but­ter­fly: Za­lay­har Lewis, Dim­itri Phillip, Asia-Marie Pouchet, Mare­na Mar­tinez, Shi­an Grif­fith, Aaron Siewlal, Zuri Fer­gu­son, Toni-Rae Yates, Dar­ren Bel­fon,

T&T swim team

11-12 Girls: Ra’el Ana­tol Mor­gan, Shazi­ah Ja­gas­sar, Za­lay­har Lewis, Za­hara An­tho­ny

11-12 Boys: Dim­itri Phillip, Eli­hu Brown, Julius En­nals, Khris­t­ian Allen, Tay­lan Di­az

13-14 Girls: Asia-Marie Pouchet, Bre­an­na Bel­mar, Mare­na Mar­tinez, Nik­ki Har­ryper­sad, Rae­gan Bel­mar, Tay­lor Marchan, Zara Per­si­co

13-14 Boys: Aaron Siewlal, Ethan McMil­lan Cole, Jadon Ramdeen, Qadir Lewis, Shain Grif­fith, Zion Ap­ple­whaite

15-17 Girls: Aimee Le Blanc, Anya Davis, Cather­ine Di­ef­fen­thaller, Keryn Burke, Toni Rae Yates, Zuri Fer­gu­son

15-17 Boys: An­pherne Bernard, Dar­ren Bel­fon, Evan Gillard Bruce, Isa­iah Alexan­der, Jaden Mills, Liam Car­ring­ton, Liam Roberts, Zachary An­tho­ny

Open Wa­ter

14-15 Girls: Mare­na Mar­tinez

14-15 Boys: Aaron Siewlal Kyle Ab­hay Boodram, Zion Ap­ple­whaite

16-18 Girls: Aimee Le Blanc, Ava Josephine Charles, Keryn Burke

16-18 Boys: Isa­iah Alexan­der, Jan­nai Ap­ple­whaite, Zachary An­tho­ny

Of­fi­cials

Man­ag­er: Alana Bour­geois-Dood­nath

Swim­ming

Head coach: Anil Roberts

As­sis­tant Coach­es: Paul Newal­lo, Hazel Haynes, Deronn Sam­lals­ingh, Nicholas Wash­ing­ton, Wen­dell Lyons

Open Wa­ter

Head coach: Mau­rice Faria (head coach)

Chap­er­ones: Kel­li Alexan­der, Chris­ma Alex­is-James