Over twenty Masters athletes are set to make a splash for Team T&T at the prestigious Barbados Open Water Swim Festival, which dives off tomorrow and runs through Sunday.
It's the largest contingent of Masters swimmers representing T&T since the Latin American and Caribbean Masters 21 years ago.
The event also serves as a warm-up for the upcoming Pan Am Aquatics Masters Championships.
00:00For some people, swimming comes like breathing.
00:03They grasp it like they've been doing it for years.
00:06That's been the case of swimmer Tahili Seeli, who learned to swim as an adult after only one year.
00:12She was motivated to do the sport after her near-drowning experience.
00:16And since then, she's become quite the competitor.
00:19It's helped her to overcome her fear of water and recuperate from a freak accident.
00:24I got involved in an accident.
00:26And I was run over by a car, I was lying in the grass after a carnival party, and a car ran over me twice.
00:33So, that's a lot to speak about.
00:36But, in any case, what happened after that is that my body was physically fine, but my injuries were from the shoulders up.
00:45She was not prepared to remain in that state.
00:47I did my research and I learned that swimming and running are two of the recommended sports for people recovering from neurological injuries.
00:57And I poured myself into those two things simply because I was training to save my life.
01:02Seeli will be heading to the Barbados Open Water Swim Festival as she has found a new life as a master's athlete.
01:09Endurance swimmer slash coach and third vice president of the National Aquatics Association, William Kerr, will also be making the trip to Barbados for the 10th time.
01:19He will be competing in the 10K and intends to cut through the competition, even if it means beating his own daughter.
01:26This will be my 10th time at the event.
01:27And this year is especially for me.
01:30It's the first time my daughter and I are competing in the 10K event.
01:33So, we're racing each other.
01:35So, what is your objective for this event?
01:37Certainly, I think the objective has been accomplished is that we've got a greater participation.
01:43Normally, we go with maybe five people to this event.
01:46This year, we've crossed 20.
01:48I think we're in the range of 25 persons right now.
01:51And that's a big accomplishment as it is.
01:53At present, he indicated master's athletes are in need of financial assistance and recognition for their achievements.
02:01And did the two work together.
02:02But first, there's need for structure.
02:04That was my purpose of getting involved in the association.
02:07There was no structure in master's swimming.
02:09It was a by-the-way sport or by-the-way extension of the sport.
02:14And putting some sort of structure in this and creating a committee that has a vision for master's swimming.
02:21We've seen the progress and we've seen the involvement.
02:25And all the volunteers, these are people who just want to improve the sport.
02:30And it could be in different aspects.
02:32It could be in safeguarding of young athletes where these masters bring experience on where things have gone wrong.
02:38And I've seen great improvement and increased improvement of the sport.
02:43The competition begins on Wednesday and runs until Sunday.
02:47But their plight for more attention to master's swimming is likely to continue long after they compete in Barbados.
02:53Sergio Dufour, TV6 Sport.
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