Team SVG returned home on Sunday evening following a well fought, three day battle at the 21st annual OECS Swimming Championships held in St Lucia from 4th – 6th November.
Up against strong teams from Antigua, BVI, Grenada and St Lucia, team SVG knew they had to swim their best, and that’s exactly what they did with thirteen of the twenty three swimmers achieving personal best times.
St Vincent’s Tolga Ackayli received two Bronze medals for placing 3rd in the 15-17 yr old boys 50 meter Freestyle and 50 meter Butterfly. He then went on to be joined by Team SVG’s swimmer/coaches Steve Wallace, Kyle Dougan and Rickydene Alexander who together formed a strong relay formation in both the 200 meter Medley relay and 200 meter Freestyle relay. Pure guts and determination meant they were able to bring home another two Bronze medals for Team SVG.
New comers to the team Adora Lawrence, Tia Gun-Munroe, Kayla Ollivierre, Leah Bollers, Dorian Antrobus and DaVaughn Durham did their country proud with their efforts, considering they only had three months to prepare for a competition of such high standards.
The Executives of St Vincent and the Grenadines Amateur Swimming Association congratulates the team for their efforts and would sincerely like to thank the sponsors and contributors who made the three day trip possible.
An expression made by all three coaches was that they plan to develop the standards of swimming in SVG and if anyone is interested in becoming involved in the sport, they can contact svgasa@gmail.com via email for more information.