Quality over quantity!
The Barbados Amateur Swimming Association (BASA) will be selecting a team capable of maintaining or surpassing the island’s recent performances when it stages the CARIFTA Swimming from April 23 to 26, at the Aquatic Centre.
So don’t expect to be chosen just because the games will be here.
“We don’t want people to just qualify. The results coming out of the meet decide how we did, so it is one thing to qualify, but it is another thing to bring home the results,” BASA president Sonia Oneal told NATIONSPORT.
“It is not just hosting the meet. At the end of the day, the sport must go forward by leaps and bounds out of hosting the meet. I am not one to just pick people because it is here.”
The president said that back in 2002 Barbados hosted the championships and many spectators were disappointed to see Barbadians at the back of the field.
“Barbadians don’t like it. It is one thing for CARIFTA to be in Jamaica and you hear that a Barbadian came last, but sitting in the stands and witnessing that performance, you don’t like it.”
She wants a positive legacy moving forward, similar to the goodwill that is generated after the FIFA Football World Cup.
“After football, everybody wants to kick a football. It is high. We want a similar legacy with swimming. They have to earn their place on the team. It doesn’t make a difference if we travel or not, we are always counted based on our performance.”
She said when the team’s performance was assessed, the media wouldn’t say that out of 30 swimmers ten met the qualifying standard and 20 were selected for development. They would note that only ten medals were won and label the performance bad.
This year, Barbados took an 11-member team to the CARIFTA Swimming Championships in Jamaica and returned with a whopping 48 medals (20-21-7). Last year, 29 medals (12-9-8) were won by ten athletes.
To this end, the BASA council met with the coaches to put a plan in place for a good showing by the Barbadians next year.
“CARIFTA is the first major meet next year on our calendar, so we met with our coaches and club presidents in September to formulate a plan to give us a good chance of maintaining or improving our performances,” Oneal said.
“The coaches agreed to work with BASA in a more focused approach to training – not that they weren’t focused before – but to redouble their efforts.
If a swimmer is not training, make a call and find out why, encourage them and get more people training to represent Barbados.”
Oneal said Bradley Ally, Shawn Clarke and Martyn Forde seemed ready to make an impact on the world stage, and Ally’s times had improved since switching his training base to France.
Looking ahead to 2012, she said the qualifying standards for the Olympics had changed. Athletes were only guaranteed a place with an “A” time, while “B” times had to wait for invitations.