Time to focus on local swimming – Alvaranga
Published:Friday | January 29, 2021 | 12:30 AM
With uncertainty looming over the staging of regional events on the 2021 swimming calendar, national coach Rory Alvaranga has placed greater emphasis on the restart of competitive swimming in Jamaica to retain the country’s young talent.
His comments follow the postponement of the Carifta Swimming Championships, scheduled for Barbados in late March, because of COVID-19 concerns. The rise in cases on the island forced the Government to reinstate lockdown measures until February 17. Additionally, the Central American and Caribbean Confederation of Swimming (CCCAN) Championships that were set for July are also in doubt as host nation Panama pulled out for similar reasons.
Both competitions were pushed back from last year because of the pandemic, with CCCAN having to change locations from its initial hosts, Bahamas.
Alvaranga says that with the uncertainty of the regional events, the resumption of domestic meets must be the main priority of the stakeholders to ensure that young swimmers are not left behind because of the lack of competition.
“It is even more important that the administration of the Aquatic Sports Association of Jamaica (ASAJ) come up with the safest way that we can engage these athletes locally because we are going to lose some of them,” Alvaranga told The Gleaner. “The more serious ones will show up for training, but you need to keep engaged with them so they can measure themselves in their improvement.”
AWAITING APPROVAL
While training was resumed at the National Aquatic Centre last summer, there has not been a competitive meet in Jamaica since March last year. The ASAJ is still awaiting approval from the Ministry of Health and Wellness to stage meets, and given recent regional developments, Alvaranga says that it will be difficult for Jamaica to participate in those competitions because of the evolving health situation.
“International competitions seem very tricky right now,” he said. “We also need ministerial approval whether we can [go] or not. A lot of it is ‘wait and see’ because we have to be also mindful of the space we are going in, the host country, their COVID numbers, because most of the officials will come from the host nation.”
ASAJ President Martin Lyn, while hopeful of the Carifta Games taking place this year, said that CCCAN chances are now difficult, with Panama unable to host.
“Unfortunately, just from experience and practicality for another country to accept that bid (now considering that next week is February), to be prepared for a major games like CCCAN, I would think that it would be a little unlikely for another country to pick that up,” Lyn said.
Lyn said that while disappointed at the news of both meets, the ASAJ is hoping to resume events once authorisation has been given and said that it is ready to resume competition in a safe manner.
“We have put all the various protocols in place,” he said. “We proposed all the changes to some of our protocols to host events, and we have sent that to all the ministries and Independence Park as well. [So] we really anticipate a short turnaround for us.”