The Caribbean Islands Swimming Championships (CISC) are slated to take place in the Bahamas June 29th through July 2nd, with the meet representing the final opportunity for Olympic qualification for some nations. One of those countries is Bermuda, who will be taking its 2nd largest squad ever to the international event later this month.
The Bermudian roster for the event includes veterans such as SwimMAC Elite-trained Roy Burch, Trojan Swim Club’s Julian Fletcher, as well as Rebecca Heyliger. For Burch, who is still getting into a rhythm since suffering an almost career-ending injury last year, he’ll be vying for a final chance to sprint his way to a Olympic berth in the men’s 50m freestyle.
Bermudian National Team Coach Ben Smith says that the fact he’s bringing 22 to the Caribbean Islands Championships is especially impressive in light of the fact that qualifying standards have been raised over the past 2 years.
“When you move the standard you are challenging people, and the fact that this many people reached the challenge is really encouraging.”
“When you are thinking about raising standards there is always a risk that people aren’t going to make it, and there are always people that are worried that you have pushed things too far,” he said. (Royal Gazette)
“When you do it and you get this kind of result it is actually gratifying that the swimmers were able to jump up and reach that standard,” he continued.
“For Bermuda it’s a big team, but we’re still one of the smaller teams at the event. But, for a country that has about 300 age-group swimmers, for us to be able to take 22 people is really impressive.”
The Bermudian roster for the CISC event is as follows:
- Shannon Hassell
- Madelyn Moore
- Vanessa Esposito
- Jesse Washington
- Emma Harvey
- Logan Watson-Brown
- Payton Zelkin
- Gabriella Pittman
- Brett Smith
- Jude Moseley
- Ethan Daley
- Evan Farrow
- Sam Williamson
- Jack Harvey
- Brian Desmond
- Ashley Irby
- Lisa Blackburn
- Julian Fletcher
- Philip Hagen
- Tyler Mazurek
- Roy-Allan Burch
- Rebecca Heyliger