Ben Smith, National Coach makes comments on recent Bermudian Swimmers’ activities and successes. As reported by www.islandstats.com, last week in the pool was very successful for Bermuda swimmers.
Smith commented, “While competing at the British National trials Roy-Allan Burch showed very good early season form. This meet was amazing preparation for Burch as he was able to compete in the Olympic pool against a very strong field of British and International swimmers. Burch swam 22.8 in the heats which placed him 6th overall but with a mistake in his start for the Finals he was only able to swim a 22.9 in the Finals.”
“These times are amazing when you consider that at this time last year no swimmer from Bermuda had ever been under 23 seconds and now he is swimming 22 seconds during his preparation meets. He will be looking forward to more fast swims at the Indianapolis Grand Prix at the end of the month,” continued Smith.
Smith went on to say, “Lisa Blackburn continues to show improvement as she prepares for her Olympic qualification. Both her times in the 100 and 200 breaststroke lowered the National records. Blackburn says that she did not feel her best but was still able to swim very strong times in her breaststroke. Blackburn will be joining Burch in Indy and we will also have Julian Fletcher in action.”
Smith concluded, “We hope to have some real excitement at the local pool as the second of the Best of Best Shipping swim meets take place. So far we have 8 swimmers that have met the selection standards for this year’s Carifta team but there are several athletes with a real chance of swimming on to the team. The swimmers need to have 2 standards to be selected for the team and tomorrow we have 4 swimmers that have made one time with their eyes on the second time and we have several others that are within tenths of their two times. We hope to see lots of fast swimming from all the competitors this weekend and hope we will add to the Carifta team.”
