BVI swimmers returning to the OECS Championships after eight-year hiatus | Sports

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TORTOLA — British Virgin Islands swimmers will return to the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States’ (OECS) Swimming Championships for the first time in eight years, when the 32nd annual meet is held in St. Vincent and the Grenadines this weekend.

The OECS Swimming Championships begin today and run through Sunday at the Shrewsbury Aquatic Center in Ratho Mill, St. Vincent. In addition to the BVI, participating federations are Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, Martinique, St. Lucia, Saint Maarten and St. Martin, St. Kitts and Nevis, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

The BVI Swimming Federation — which had a swimmer compete in the 2016 Rio Olympics, just four years after the federation’s formation — had its program severely disrupted after the passage of Hurricane Irma in 2017, as the BVISF’s training base at Prospect Reef was destroyed.

“For us locally, it’s a big deal and the OECS Championships is where we started and to be missing for the last couple years, it was a blow to the local program,” BVI Swimming Federation president Elsworth Phillip told The Daily News.

“We are happy that we have people still interested. We have young fresh talent, who are eager to show they’re capable of competing in the region, amongst the other OECS countries. In a nutshell, this is a big deal.”

According to Phillip, the BVI last competed in the OCES meet — also held in St. Vincent — in 2016. In the eight years since that meet, the British Virgin Islands has a whole new crop of swimmers competing.

The BVI’s six-person team includes four home-based swimmers and two who are training in Missouri.

“We’re excited about the team. We have a mix of green to mid to experienced swimmers,” Phillip said. “Not having a local training facility, the home-based swimmers have been working with their coach in much smaller pools and they’re not as experienced as yet with the longer swims, but they’ll be getting their feet wet. With what they’re accustomed to doing, at the OECS level, it will be a lot tougher than they are used to.”

Kyla and Jai Potter will contest 10 events each in the 11-12 and 15-17 divisions. Home-based swimmers Arun Bissoondutt (9-10), Naya Bissoondut, Skylar Steer and William Vergel (all in the 8-under division) will swim in in events from 25 meters to 100 meters. Phillip said the BVI will also have its first 10-under mixed relay team participating in the championships.

“They’ll have the experience of being the first team to really compete in a mixed relay, for Team BVI,” Phillip said.

While they’re returning following an eight-year break, Phillip said that they have garnered lots of experience, competing in events like the CARIFTA Swimming Championships, Central American and Caribbean Federation Championships, World Championships, Youth Olympics and Olympic Games, Pan Am Games, British Championships, Scottish Championships, English Championships, the Mare Nostrum Tour and the Swimming World Cup Series.

“We’re excited to be returning to the OECS after such a long stint,” Phillip said. “It’s unfortunate that we can’t say we have access to a local facility. We were fortunate at the time to have access to the pool at Prospect Reef, which was a 25-meter, six-lane pool. Even though it was a bit on the narrow side, the length was perfect, and it served its purpose. But since the effects of Irma and Maria, we haven’t been able to return there, but we’re happy that we could basically field a team.”

Although the championships are in its 32nd year, Phillip said the BVISF didn’t enter swimmers in the event until its 20th edition and didn’t even know about it before.

“For some reason, the early years seems like it was a secret but 20 years of the event to me, could not have been a secret, but it was,” Phillip said. “We didn’t know of the championships until a family living here from Antigua told us. We took the opportunity and have grown from there, competing in the top age group development meet. The OECS Championships is a key development meet for swimmers in the region.”

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