Rochester expects water polo gold-
AQUATIC SPORTS Association of Jamaica (ASAJ) first vice-president with responsibility for water polo, Lance Rochester, expects Jamaica's under-19 boys to defend their gold medal won at the 2017 CARIFTA Water Polo Championship.
Rochester said that he also expects improvement on the girls (u19) silver medal and boy under-16 bronze medals won at the previous championship, when this year’s edition takes place starting this Friday at the National Aquatic Centre.
Jamaica will compete against Curaçao, The Bahamas, and Barbados at this year's championship, but despite regional giants Trinidad and Tobago pulling out of the tournament at the last minute, Rochester does not believe it will make their title defence any easier.
"We have great expectations for this event. We have trained hard for it for the past year.
Last year, we went to the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games and we won a bronze medal. Now, the players are gearing up for the Junior Pan Am Games and the CAC Games again this year.
"So CARIFTA is a good warmup for them and good exposure, especially for our new players, who are making the national team for the first time. They are very eager and we are hoping for some good results," he said.
However, he anticipates a keenly contested tournament despite just four nations competing.
"It's going t o be a very exciting event even though we are aiming for the gold. The teams are very evenly matched, so games will be close and teams will work hard. But it's going to be exciting and we hope the public comes out and suppor ts us," he continued. "Trinidad and Tobago will not participate this year, so we will just play with who are able to come. We expect tough competition right around, so we are coming prepared for everybody and we expect the games will be close regardless of who we play," he said.
The water polo competitions get under way on Friday at the National Aquatic Centre with games in all age-group competitions. Games will start at 9 a.m. and run to 8 p.m. . The final is schedule for Sunday at the same venue.