Swimmers seek experience at Commonwealth Games

DELHI, India: With medals expected by most to be well out of reach, national records and increased experience are the targets of the national swimmers here in Delhi for the 19th Commonwealth Games.

Alia Atkinson, who won four gold medals at the recent Central American and Caribbean Games (CAC) and has represented Jamaica at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China, is the only member of the trio which is completed by 15-year-old Alexia Royal-Eatmon and Victoria Ho, with any meaningful experience, but even Atkinson will be hard-pressed to secure a medal at the games for the island.

difficulties

Team manager Dr Brian James is well aware of the difficulties that his young charges will face, but is more concerned about the experience that will be gained in Delhi, a move that he is sure will guarantee the secured growth of the programme and the development of the swimmers.

"First of all, we want to go there and be competitive and in the first instance, we hope to take aim at some of the Jamaican records that are within reach of a couple of our swimmers," said James. "It's difficult for us to talk about medals at this point. I think Alia (Atkinson) will be the closest person to getting any medal for us of the three but it's difficult to speculate.

"Without a doubt, this opportunity will give them the chance to gain some experience, particularly for Vicky and Alexia because they haven't done any great number of high-level meets. They went to the CAC Games and Alexia went to the Commonwealth Youth Games and that would have been the extent of their high-level experience," added James.

Ho won the women's 800m freestyle at the CAC Games in a time of 9:26.35 while Royal-Eatman did not advance from either the 50m, 100m or 200m backstroke.

The team's Commonwealth Games ambitions also suffered a major blow after the withdrawal of US-based Kendese Nangle, who had to pull out of the championships due to school commitments.

exciting team

Nangle was supposed to form the fourth element of what would have been Jamaica's first relay team at this level.

"This was going to be a very exciting team because it would have been the first time in history that Jamaica would have put forward a relay team at this competition. We were very excited about this but her commitments have prevented her from taking her place on the team," James lamented.

All three will be in action on tomorrow's opening day of competition in the pool with Atkinson leading the charge in the heats of the 200m individual medley and the 50m breaststroke. Ho will be the first in the pool in the heats of the women's 200m freestyle while Royal-Eatmon will feature in the heats of the women's 50m butterfly.

André Lowe