Tornadoes Invitational a hit across the board
THAT the 25th renewal of the Tornadoes Swim Club Invitational was a hit with both local and overseas athletes has organisers considering tweaks to add more value to enhance the experience of attendees.
While admitting that sessions lasting longer than expected was their biggest challenge, Tornadoes Head Coach Wendy Lee also welcomed the fact that their time issue resulted from the distance events, particularly, being oversubscribed.
With that in mind, Lee pointed out that they are currently considering extending the three-day meet to four days.
“It was challenging and a bit overwhelming, but it also says that big meets can happen here in Jamaica and we are very proud of the end result,” Lee told the Jamaica Observer at the conclusion of the event at the National Aquatic Centre on Sunday.
“I think in general the athletes are very happy with the opportunity we created for them; the overseas athletes also expressed their delight as I got alot of positive feedback. And because it was so big, instead of saying we are going to cut it down, we are going to figure out how to get it across four days because the demand is there,” she shared.
The meet, which was accredited by FINA as a World Championships qualifier, also assisted in athletes’ preparation for important upcoming international assignments such as the Commonwealth Games and the Pan American Age Group Swimming Championships.
And, by all indications, the Jamaicans as well as their counterparts from St Lucia, Cayman Islands, St Maarten, Mexico, and the United States, met or even surpassed their own expectations, with some 26 records being broken across the three days.
Zaneta Alvaranga of Kaizen Swim Club was among the standout Jamaican performers as she accounted for six records while Charles Mcintosh of Aquamarine Ripples tallied four records, as Nelson Denny of Tornadoes Swim Club, Leanna Wainwright (swimming unattached), and Zachary Randle of Y-speedos had two records each.
Meanwhile, Sierrah Broadbelt of Seven Miles Swim Club out of Cayman Islands accounted for five records.
The swimmers’ record-breaking exploits, coupled with the fact that they were able to forge new relationships, had Lee beaming about the prospects for the next staging.
“I was able to develop a renewed relationship with the Cayman Islands team, and the Mexican coach has already indicated to me that he wants to come back here and have a camp — which means that he was also happy with not only our hospitality but also the level of competition they got,” said Lee.
“Again, the more competitive the events the better it is for swimmers to improve their times, and our swimmers also achieved some of their intended targets which was hitting qualifying times for the World Championships.
“American-born Moroccan Yusef Tibazi came here without a qualifying time for World Championships and he left here knowing he now has an opportunity to swim at the event, having achieved the required time because we allowed a number of time trials — and that was welcomed by the swimmers,” she noted.
Stephen Broadbelt, president of the Cayman Aquatic Association, said the meet — and by extension the experience — did his swimmers a world of good.
“We don’t have a long-course [50m] pool but we needed times to get our swimmers qualified for upcoming championships and they got a bunch of them at this meet — which is what we came here for.
“So we are excited to be here. We were locked up for two years because Cayman has a lot more restrictions than Jamaica so we have some catching up to do, but we are really pleased with the performances,” Broadbelt said.
His Cayman Islands development team and Seven Miles Swim Club were fourth and sixth on the overall standings with 273 and 169.5 points, respectively.
Lee’s Tornadoes Swim Club finished tops with 1,319.5 points, ahead of Y-speedos Swim Club (817.5 points) and Aquamarine Ripples (732.5 points). Kaizen Swim Club (271.5 points) completed the top five.
“We are really happy because you guys have some fast swimmers, the competition here is tough, and that is another reason why we love coming here. We did some other meets in Florida and they are not as fast.
“But here, you know you are going to get pushed hard and there is no easy races. You have to work hard to get into the points. People know that Jamaicans are good in track and field but there is also a lot of fast swimmers,” Broadbelt noted.
Meanwhile, St Maarten’s Taffi Illis, who trains in Florida, said it was a welcome return to Caribbean competition for her.
“On the first day we came in kind of late, so we came straight to the pool from the airport and we were a bit tired, but it turned out pretty well. I did a few personal bests, which was good. I must say Coach Wendy is amazing; she really helped to make us comfortable and ensured we got everything together,” Illis shared.
“It’s been a while since I competed at a meet in the Caribbean so it’s really nice. It’s alot more lively than in Florida where nobody cheers, they just clap, so this was a welcome change and good preparation for me and my teammates ahead of the World Championships,” she ended.