THE SeaJays Swim Club, one of the longest standing swim clubs in Saint Lucia, will this weekend participate in the Air Caraibes Swim Meet.
After several years of developing a relationship with Schoelcher Natation 2000, SeaJays has been invited to participate in various meets throughout the Martinique Swimming calendar. Between this relationship and the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the Saint Lucia Aquatics Federation (SLAF) during 2018, SeaJays will take a delegation of 30 swimmers and three coaches to participate in the event hosted at Centre Aquatique Communautaire located in Lamentin.
This is the largest club delegation to date which has travelled to any regional meet, as confirmed by Saint Lucia Aquatics Federation Executive.
Swimmers such as Jayhan Odlum-Smith and Terrel Monplaisir returned from overseas to participate in this long course meet.
Also in the squad are D’Andre Blanchard and Tristan Dorville who will look to strengthen their positions on the national team for 2020 Carifta Swimming Championships and CCCAN. Jeannot Walters, Shaquil Flavius, Kenai D’Auvergne, and Therron Herelle will be setting their eyes on achieving new standards for the start of 2020.
In the thick of things are Caitlin Polius and Sade Joseph, who represented Saint Lucia at the OECS Swimming Championships in November. The 8 and under age group leaders, Noah Dorville and James Sylvester, will test their speed during the event as well. Two of the youngest members of Sea Jays Swim Club, Aniyah George and Tre Theresine both age 7 will also get to participate in this long course meet.
The Meeting Air Caraibes is part of the Circuit Martinique – a group of five swim meets used for selection to the French Championships held in July 2020. This year the meet has entered 10 swim teams that include a whopping 320 swimmers.
Sprint events such as 50 metres freestyle and 100 metres freestyle have the largest participation, while challenging events such as the 400 metres Individual medley (IM) or 200 metres butterfly are Martinique crowd favorites. Yet there are still distance challenges such as 800 metres and 1500 metres freestyle. The swimmers can participate in up to 12 events in the 2 days period, which is run in four sessions. The majority of SeaJays swimmers will be participating in nine to 10 events during this short period of time.