Nangle, Royal-Eatmon head CARIFTA team

Robert Bailey, Gleaner Writer

Senior swimmers Kendese Nangle and Alexia Royal-Eatmon will head a strong 34-member Jamaica team at this year's CARIFTA Games Swimming Championships, which will be held April 23-27 in Barbados.

Both swimmers will be joined in the 15-17 age group by experienced campaigners Victoria Ho, Octivia Gray, Brittany Kenny and Breanna Roman.

Nangle was the country's lone representative at the Rome World Championships in 2009 and reached the semi-finals of the inaugural Youth Olympics in Singapore last year.

Fifteen-year-old Royal-Eatmon and Ho represented Jamaica at last year's Commonwealth Games in Delhi, where the former advanced to the semi-finals of 100m butterfly.

In the male 15-17 category, Jason-Craig Burnett, Matthew Chen, Prince Easton, Mario Hyman, Shaun James and Steven Moodie are all expected to medal for Jamaica in their respective events.

The Jamaicans finished fifth in last year's tournament that was held here on home soil, but Jacqueline Knight-Campbell, manager of the team, is anticipating a much better performance.

Expecting a top-three finish

"We are expecting a top-three finish because our physical and mental preparation has gone well and it is now for the swimmers to go out there and make us proud," said Knight-Campbell.

"I know that they are very confident," Knight-Campbell added. "They have been training with their respective clubs and they have also broken several records in the national age-group championships recently."

Jamaica won 22 medals, which placed them seventh in the medals table at last year's championships. This consisted of six gold, five silver and 11 bronze, which Knight-Campbell expect them to better this time around.

"This is a very strong team which we have selected for the championships and I expect us to surpass the number of medals that we won at last year's championships," she stated.

Timothy Wynter and Kevaughn Campbell, who won gold medals at the last championships, will lead Jamaica's charge in the 13-14 age group, along with Antoine Young, Matthew Lyn, Justin James and Sidrell Williams.

The 13-14 girls' team consists of Danielle Boothe, Ivan Chan, Priscilla McClure, Shade Thaxter and Stefani Webley.

Cameron Anderson, Shaquiem Cameron, Xavier Phillips and Brandon Reid are down to compete in the 11-12 age group, while in the girls' category, Brittney Campbell, Annastazia Chin, D'Agaene Clarke, Tiara Myrie and Angara Sinclair will feature.

Head coach is Nathan Brown, while Syreeta Biggs is the assistant coach.