The 20th OECS Championship which took place over the week-end 14th – 16th January has been unanimously described as the best organized, most festive and most exciting championship ever staged. Grenada was the decisive champion winning with 1668.5 points over St. Lucia’s 1.508. This was their 5th championship in a row, both countries now sharing equal winnings over its 20 year history. Antigua came in 3rd with 1079.5 points. The resurgence of Antigua was truly welcome as they certainly made an impact with their 34-member team and domination of the 8 & under age group swimmers. From an OECS showing in 2006 with only one (1) swimmer, 2007 with nine (9), 2008 with twenty (20), and 2009 with twenty six (26), it has taken five (5) years to build itself to a full team.

Team Manager, Edith Clashing attributes this to the work of four pool based clubs (Wadadli Aquatic Racers, Antigua Athletic Club, Swalings, Phoenix Swim Club) that have emerged with competitive clubs over this period of time. The awesome performance of the Antigua Juniors has observers excited about the impact this will have on future championships. The Antiguans dominated their Grenadian and St Lucian counterparts in the younger age groups, capturing six of the twelve spots. If this trend continues the Antiguan team could be looking for a turn in the tide by 2014 to win the championships.
The medal count of 81 was a dramatic increase over its 26 last year. Antiguan swimmers earned 16 gold, 30 silver and 35 bronze medals and now hold 9 of the 27 new OECS records set. The medal breakdown is as follows:

Congrats to our age group winners:

Bianca Mitchell tied with Grenada for 1st place in the girls 8 & under with 51 points. Our awesome 8 & under boys were Jason Bento 1st with 58 points, Ethan Bento 2nd with 52 points and Lleyton Martin 3rd with 38 points. Gabriella John and Stephano Mitchell both scored 3rd place with 49 points in the girls 9-10 and 47 points in the boys 9-10 respectively. So did Jasmine Sengupta (3rd) with 60 points in the girls 11-12. Camaria Sampson with 74 points scored the highest points overall earning second place in the girls 18 & over.
The excitement in the stands was deafening as our Medley Relay 10 & under girls and Freestyle Relay 10 & under boys captured gold in both these events. Similarly, the boys 11-14 relay team beat the Grenada champions resoundingly in both races, taking second place to St. Lucia.

Our new OECS record holders are:

Bianca Mitchell in two events – 8 & under girls in 25 Free (16.34sec) and 25 Butterfly (17.54sec)
Jason Bento in three events – 8 & under boys in 100 Free (1.15); 25 Butterfly (16.88) and 100IM (1:27.36)
Noah Mascoll-Gomes in one event – 9-10 boys in 50 Free (31.11)
Stefano Mitchell in three events – 9-10 boys in 100 Free (1:08.18), 200 Free (2:27.98), and 400 Free (5:15.19)
The Coaches and Manager express their appreciation to the swimmers for the tremendous efforts made to give their best performance. A number of swimmers were plagued with the flu up to days before travelling. One swimmer, Zac Foster, an outstanding 16 year old was unable to be present due to illness, while William Trey Smith, national team captain (boys), succumbed to Dengue Fever the week before the meet, and though unable to swim his longer races, was still able to bag two individual medals. Despite all of this, the performance by the team was extraordinary and the tremendous improvement was noted in their 95% best time average.
Antigua’s bid to host the 21st OECS championship in November 2011 went unopposed. Twenty-one [21] years is certainly a coming of age, and the team, parents and supporters look forward to showing the rest of the region the degree to which our sport has grown on the island. They also look forward to demonstrating that Antigua can also execute a well organized event and welcome the support of the government and the general public to making this event a reality.
Again, thanks to all our sponsors for the financial and other support given to the team to ensure that “no swimmer was left behind”. We raised the targeted $60,000. Thanks to the Ministry of Sport for its continued support and to the various media houses that assisted us in promoting the team to the public.

Details to follow for training schedule and updated fund raising information.

We appreciate our sponsors…join our team!

Platinum: Over $1000

Gold: $501 – $1000

Silver: $251 – $500

Bronze: $50 –  $250

Use the following link for more information about the OECS Cake and Sweet Sale 

OECS Cake & Sweet Sale

 Date: 30^th October 2010

Location:    First Choice Supermarket & Bargain Center, Perry Bay

Time:  10am until

Come out and support the OECS swim team at our evening fund raiser and auction hosted by Sugar Ridge hotel and Spa.

OECS National Swim Team Selected

THE MINISTER AND STAFF OF THE OFFICE OF THE MINISTER OF STATE EXTENDS HEARTIEST CONGRATULATIONS FOR THE INDIVIDUAL WINNERS AND TO THE TEAM FOR IT;S PERFORMANCE. KEEP ON SWIMMING!

The OECS Swimming Championships took place this past week end at the 25 yd 4 lane Good Hope Pool in Grenada starting Friday 6^th November and ending Sunday 8^th November. The Antigua Swim Team headed by Team Manager Edith Clashing and Head Coach Oliver Carpintero comprised 27 swimmers.  Two swimmers were unable to travel due to illness and injury.

Four teams participated in the meet: Host Grenada with a full team of 34, St. Lucia with a full team of 34, Antigua with 27 and St. Vincent with 10 swimmers.  Grenada emerged the clear winners with 1780.5 points, St. Lucia in second place with 1586 points, Antigua in third with 661 points and St. Vincent in 4^th place with 67.5 points. Antigua’s presence with 27 swimmers certainly called attention to the improvement of swimming in that country.  Although not as yet making a sizeable dent in the scoring ratio, the quality of the swimmers’ performance and the increased level of competition waged certainly had the contenders of this OECS meet paying closer attention to our swimmers.  The results of the swimmers speak for themselves.

In the individual events Antigua garnered 2 gold medals, 4 silver and 18 bronze. In the relays Antigua captured 1 silver and 5 bronze medals.  Top medal earner came from the 8 & under girl’s age group in   Samantha Roberts of the Wadadli Aquatic Racers Swim Club who won a total of 8 medals.  Samantha also won the 2^nd place overall award in the 8 & under age group: Her takings were 1gold, 2 silver and 5 bronze.  Second was Alejandra John of the Antigua Athletic Club in the girl’s 11-12 age group. She captured 3 medals: 1gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze. Kai Ross of the AAC and Monique Bigler of Swallings captured 3 bronze. Yanni Alexander (11-12 boys) of the Phoenix Swim Club captured 1 silver and 1bronze. Omar John (11-12) of the AAC won 1 silver & 1 bronze, J’air Smith (11-12) of WAR won 2 bronze.  Ethan Bento, Dylan Ross (8 & under) of the AAC captured 2 bronze medals each. Ethan Bento also captured 3rd place in teh 8 & under age group awards. Silver and Bronze medals were won by Stephano Mitchell, Zubin Deyal, Omar John & Diego Shoul in the 200 medley and 200 free relays respectively.  Bronze medals in the girls 10 & under 200medley relay and 200 free relay were won by Monique Bigler, Samantha Roberts, Gabriella John and Joelle Francis. 3^rd place bronze was captured In the 11-14 boys 200 relay by Courtney Vigo, Yanni Alexander, Jack Millard and Trey Smith.

Most of the other swimmers who did not win medals posted improvements in the times of their various events and to them we say well done.

Congratulations to all the winners.

For Full Results click here:

Individual results for each swimmer will be posted shortly