By Tamica Garnett
The Guyana Amateur Swimming Association (GASA) is hoping that it can hold trials later this month at the Castellani Swimming Pool to select swimmers for the 16th annual Goodwill Games from August 13 – 15 in Suriname.
Secretary of GASA, Dr. Karen Pilgrim, told Stabroek Sport yesterday that while a few of the swimmers had already qualified for the event, the GASA will conduct official trials for the event.
Eight swimmers accomplished the qualifying times for the games when they took part in the GASA Independence Day Meet 2010.
In the girls 13-14 category, Athena Gaskin, Britany van Lange and Soroya Simmons have already overcome that hurdle while in the boys 13 – 14 category, Ronaldo Rodrigues and Serrano Gonsalves have already secured their places.
Steffi De Nobrega and Noelle Smith, both in the girls 15 – 17 category, round out the list of qualifiers.
Each country is allotted a maximum of 40 swimmers and GASA is optimistic that it would be able to send the full team.
However, that would depend entirely on the abilities of the swimmers to attain the qualifying times required to attend the meet as well as the availability of funding.
Questioned on the latter aspect, Dr. Pilgrim said that it was usually the parents of the selected swimmers who bore the financial obligations of having their child/children attend the games.
It was explained that though GASA would sometimes assist, as they did last year, the association was not financially viable to undertake the cost of the venture.
“In terms of assistance to the swimmers, we can’t give the support that we did last year. The GASA helped out a lot last year, more than usual, but we can’t afford that this year, we don’t have that kind of ability,” Dr. Pilgrim stated.
“Generally for Goodwill it is mainly on the parents to find the funds. Some parents would request letters to ask for sponsorship, if they request letters we will provide letters. Some parents do that and if any parents want to do a fundraiser or so, we do what we can to assist,” Pilgrim said.
The fundraising has already begun as the association conducted its first last Sunday at the Colgrain Swimming Pool when the GASA held a ‘Fish n Chip’ lime alongside an Olympic Day activity that they hosted.
The Goodwill Games is an annual event where four countries – Guyana, Suriname, Trinidad and Barbados – participate in swimming events. The games feature five categories for swimmers 17 years and under, beginning with the eight-and-under category
Guyana was represented by a 17-member contingent last year when the event was held in Barbados.
The team captured some 17 medals.
Guyana is known to be strong in the boys 15 – 17 category, particularly in the relays.
In that category the Guyana team had held the title for the freestyle medley until last year when they finished second.
Last year’s relay team consisted of Henk Lowe, Jamie Jabar, Stephen Soares and Olympic swimmer Niall Roberts.
However this year the team will lack the proficiency of Roberts and Lowe.
Roberts can no longer compete at the event due to his age and Lowe will be attending the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore.
Turning to the projected performance of the athletes at this year’s Games, Pilgrim stated that with the absence of Roberts and Lowe the Boys 15 – 17 category will face a tougher year.
“This year will be a tougher year for that age group (the 15 – 17). Niall is past 17 and Henk will be in Singapore for Youth Olympics, so we’ll be depending on the other boys to pick up the slack. Stephen Soares and Jamie are still there and we have some good youngsters. They will be relatively new but they would’ve had a little touch of experience at the Inter-Guiana Games,” Dr. Pilgrim related.
On a brighter note, Dr. Pilgrim stated that the girls 13-14 category could have a much better year by putting together a competent relay team since more girls have advanced into the category.
“We have Soroya (Simmons), Britany (van Lange) and Athena (Gaskin), so if we could get one more girl we would have a good relay team there, but in the younger categories I don’t know if we will see a lot of participation there,” Pilgrim said.
Last year, van Lange and Simmons participated in the 11 – 12 category.