As www.islandstats.com reported the Bermuda Amateur Swimming Association’s first best of Best Series Swim Meet took place right here in Bermuda at the BASA Pool on Saturday.
Today www.islandstats.com brings you coaches comments.
Stephen Castree from Harbour Swim Club reported, ‘In the final qualifying meet prior to the selection of the Carifta team; the majority of athletes were trained to swim fast in this meet by the Harbour Coaches. This worked in spectacular fashion with 116 personal best times in the main meet, not including the development meet.
The most notable swim and the swim of the year so far in all competitions was recorded by Emma Harvey in the 200m Butterfly. Harvey, having broken the previous national record in the prior meet by a second demolished her own national record by 9.43 seconds – a truly remarkable swim. Head Coach Shona Palmer stated ‘Emma was swimming the event this year only for the second time and all the coaches are pleased with the level of improvement, but are also extremely confident there is a lot more improvement to come.’
With nearly all Harbour swimmers recording personal best times in at least one event, the evidence of the return on the hard work put in at Club and Bermuda Team Training, was clear for all to see. The other standout swims for Harbour included Peter Kiernan in the 100 Freestyle for an A time and his improvements across all events in the 2013-14 season very significant. Nick Brando also continues to impress and his rapid improvement since September 2013 have brought him into contention to repeat for medals in one of the age groups where Bermuda currently has an embarrassment of riches. Harbour continue to have more swimmers reach the required BB standard in order to enter main meets and the Club would like to congratulate all swimmers who have graduated to this level’
Ben Smith National Coach and Sharks Swim Club Head Coach said, “We were very happy with the overall results for this meet. Most swimmers were able to reach near personal best if not exceed personal best times which is a good indicator that the training through the winter has been successful. This meet being the last qualifier for Carifta meant that there was added pressure and tension in the pool which saw fast swims but no added qualifiers by the end of the session. Aaron Rego and Jessie Thomas came with 1 tenth of a second from hitting their second qualifying time for Carifta which was agonizing as they have worked so hard to reach their goal for the season. We are proud of all the swimmers and their efforts and look forward to continued success this season.
At the Development Meet Casey Morris achieved her B time in the 100 Breast which will now allow her to compete in BOB 2. Robert Thomas and Kent Simmons competed for the first time in a standard level meet and did an admirable job with their swims. Casey, Robert and Kent now join Blake Oliveira, Gabby Pitman, Allie Riihilouma and Elena Munoz in representing Sharks in the standard level meets.
