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CCNTV6
  • 2 years ago
Our swimmers returned home on Wednesday evening after finishing third at the CARIFTA Swimming Championships in the Bahamas.

T&T picked up a total of 56 medals including 25 Gold Medals and while expressing satisfaction with the result, say they are hoping to do better next year in T&T.
Transcript
00:00 Trinidad and Tobago swimmers are back in the country following on from their
00:04 performance at the Caritas Swimming Championships in Bahamas. Manager of the
00:08 team Keith Matamoro was satisfied with the results. Performance of the team was
00:13 spectacular you know everybody gave the best you know we went in three days
00:18 before normal schedule time and that helped the team basically a lot because
00:23 the coaches in the year, our head coach Mark Cushet, our assistant coach
00:27 Arnell Roberts and Paul Nwalo and Leon Samuelsing, they motivated the children
00:32 from day one you know we do a mental session while we were in Bahamas that
00:36 get them prepared, get them visualized session that make them feel like you can do it
00:41 and they perform at the very best I can't ask for nothing more. However could they
00:46 have done better? We were short-handed in certain areas like in the boys 11 to 12
00:52 we had only one swimmer, first time swimmer Nathan McMillan Cole and he
00:57 performed extremely well for a first-timer. He lives abroad, he's from the UK. We had a
01:01 nice first time foreigner who local roots, Zoe Ferguson, she performed excellent she
01:08 broke some some record in the backstroke and also the girls 57 they broke records
01:13 the boys 57 broke records and all in all we had a very very very good mate, we
01:18 support one another we had a small little traveling crew that really give
01:22 us that motivation to achieve what we went for. TNT finished third on the
01:27 points table. Johan Matamoro gave some insight into the factors affecting the
01:32 performance of the team. Well I feel very proud of the performance of the team overall
01:37 despite certain challenges like for instance some of our main swimmers got
01:43 agastro infection and food poisoning along the way causing them to miss certain
01:50 races which were been valuable to our team standings but overall very proud of the team
01:56 we took everything in stride. Jaden Mills was part of the record-breaking 13 to 14
02:02 age group team and he contributed significantly to the points tally for
02:06 TNT. Well honestly I went out with just a drive to work hard because there are a
02:15 lot of people that helped me make it to this point and really and truly I
02:19 wouldn't be here without my family my friends especially my school I go to I
02:24 attend to Queens Royal College and they helped me a lot to come here and my mom
02:28 as well. He spoke about his most cherished medal. Well me personally it's
02:34 the 53. 53 is my best event I mean I work hard for it it's been something I've
02:42 always done 53 took me far in many places I got 53 took me to my first ever
02:50 national team the Pan American Games I was held in Chinla in 2022 and now I'm
02:55 here winning a gold medal in the Curfew Games. Swim captain Amari Ash says the
03:00 presence of senior athlete Dylan Carter helped to inspire members of the team.
03:05 Well the first day when Dylan came he was telling us about like how to
03:09 approach your first race whether your first race is bad or good it's how you take that
03:14 race and it's how you come back from that race so having them there and giving
03:17 them giving us their opinion and giving us some of their insights it was really
03:22 helpful. Next up TNT is expected to host the Carifta swim meet and they will be
03:27 hoping for a better performance on home soil. We have to keep on working at our
03:32 swimmers in order for us to be competitive out there be competitive in the sense that in all age
03:37 groups because really conks really is the highlight of every swim meet you
03:41 know it add additional points to the team and we cannot continue going out
03:46 there short-handed in certain age group and expect to win you know although our
03:50 swimmers give the best but you know it we cannot ask nothing more from them our
03:54 coaches was the best most experienced coaches I ever worked with on a national
03:59 team and we could build from that going forward.
04:01 Sergio Dufour TV6 Sport
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