Twenty-one young and talented swimmers ages ranging from 5 to 13, of the Blue Marlins Swim Club demonstrated the thinking behind decorated Olympian, Michael Phelps’ “the more you dream the further you get” when they competed in the Flow Invitational at the Shrewsbury Aquatic Centre Aug. 26 to 28.
Swim Clubs from Barbados, Tobago, St. Lucia, Grenada, Bequia and St. Vincent, competed for medals and age group championship trophies.
Blue Marlins captured four age group championship trophies in the Girls age 6 & Under in Tyler Matthias, Girls age 7 to 8 in Kennice Greene, Boys age 7 to 8 in Brandon George and Boys age 9 to 10 in Tristan Ballah.
The Overall Sprint Challenge Champions of both individual Boys and Girls age group 7 to 8 were won by Brandon George and Kennice Greene respectively. National records were broken by Kennice Greene (7 to 8) in the 200m Freestyle, 50 Breaststroke and 50 Fly events. Hazen Dabriel (6 & Under) broke the national record in the 25m Backstroke earning a bronze medal.
The swimmers won 77 medals.
Leading the tally were Kennice Greene with 10 gold and 1 silver and Brandon George with 9 gold and 2 silver. Tristan Ballah coped 5 gold, 4 silver and 1 bronze while Hazen Dabriel achieved 1 gold, 5 silver and 4 bronze. Matthew Ballah claimed 3 silver and 5 bronze medals. Zariel Nelson won 2 silver and 4 bronze medals while Tyler Mattias won 3 gold and 1 silver.
Not to be left out were Tyrese Lewis with 4 bronze; Seth Byron with 3 bronze, Adiah Phillips with 2 bronze and Ariel Pierre 1 gold and 1 silver. Stalwarts of the club Bryson George and Kenale Alleyne demonstrated their continued rise to prowess by achieving eleven personal best times a piece in their events. Bryson achieved 1 bronze for his perfect 11 PBs in 11 events while Kenale also attained 11 PBs from his 12 events entered with 1 silver and 1 bronze.
Honourable mention must be made of the upcoming talents of Abigale DeShong and Kelsea Nichols with 6 PBs each, Adonia Bramble achieving 5 PBs, Sebastien DeFreitas with 3 PBs, Tai Joseph had 2 PBs and Tyler Samuel with a PB in the 25m Breastroke.
The swimmers’ success is due in no small part to their summer long trainer and committed Coach Neisha Alexander assisted by Coaches Rickydene Alexander and Sarah Smith.
The swimmers now set their sights on the upcoming OECS Championships in November to be hosted in St. Vincent.