00:00Swimmer Marina Martinez will be one to look out for ahead of the Karifta
00:04Swimming Championships next month at the National Aquatic Center. She qualified
00:08for the competition with a two Karifta standard eight times and will be
00:12competing in six events. The swimmer who broke the national record in the 1500
00:16meters will be racing in the 13 to 14 age group category. She has accepted the
00:21favorite tag. I do see myself as one of the favorites in the competition during
00:27the hard work and the training that I do, not missing any days as as much as I
00:33can. I come, work hard, be dedicated. Martinez indicated that she trains on
00:38mornings and evenings and each session is geared to take her to a new level.
00:42That's in the mornings when our coach, which is coach Maurice, he pushes us in
00:48long distance and coach McLeod helps us in the afternoon by giving us sets that
00:53could help us improve what we've done in the morning. It's a, it's a very hard,
00:58it's very hard to do long distance. It's not an event that a lot of people favor.
01:03I favor it but not as much as some other events, yes. What are your pet events? My
01:11pet events are 400 IM, 200 IM, 200 fly and 100 fly. She is targeting a few more
01:22records at Kharifta but she's also being very realistic. My coach is very, he's
01:28helping us to seek to be realistic in case if you don't win a medal you have
01:34many other events and many opportunities in life ahead of you. So there's not just
01:38one thing in life, you have many other options in life. So don't seek for one
01:43thing alone but seek for plenty opportunities. So what does she want to
01:47I would like to be an anesthesiologist when I grow up, a doctor to help the
01:54people because it's what I care for, I love to help people and if I can and if
02:00I could I will try my best to make it to Olympics and train hard every day. What
02:07made you decide to choose that profession? A lot of people in my family
02:12were sick and some of them died from cancer, some of them, at first I
02:18wanted to be an oncologist to help the cancer but I changed it to
02:22anesthesiologist. It just makes me feel happy and warm heart to see how many
02:29lives I could change and how many people I can help each day. She had a message
02:33for the public as well. I would love you all to turn up to see me perform and all
02:38my other teammates. We are gonna be so good, we are training hard right now, we
02:43are performing at our best, our abilities. We want you all to come and see, come and
02:48support, the more support the better for us because we need you all and it is in
02:52our country and we don't want to shame you all. We want to show you all that we are the
02:56best and swimmers do great things for Trinidad and Tobago. The Karypta
03:00Swimming Championships is set to take place from April 19th to the 22nd.
03:04Sergio Dufour, TV6 Sport
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