Annually, in the third term of each school year, the Saint Lucia Swimming Association (SLASA) in collaboration with the Department of Youth Development and Sports hosts the Primary Schools Swim Meet and Secondary Schools Swim Meet. For each school, it is a time to showcase their swimmers — both non-club swimmers and club swimmers — and the development of their swimming programmes.
Rodney Heights Aquatic Centre is the venue used annually. This year, the host club to RHAC — Racers Elite — is proud to recognize all of their swimmers who participated. There were outstanding performances by several swimmers in both the primary and secondary school segments.
Overall in the Primary Schools Meet, Alyssia Elliot, who represented The Montessori School, placed second in the Girls 9-10 category, winning two silver medals and one gold. Nathan Vigier, representing Dame PearletteLouisy Primary, placed first overall in the Boys 11-12 age group with a sweep of gold medals in his events.
Theron Herelle, representing Dame PearletteLouisy Primary, placed first overall for the Boys 9-10 age group as well. Not only did he take all golds in his events, he also set the only record for the day swimming 15.80 seconds in the 25-metres fly! The old record was set back in 2010 by Jyasi Daniel.
For the Secondary Schools Meet, JorjaMederick of Leon Hess Comprehensive and Kenai D’Auvergne of Castries Comprehensive both placed fifth overall in their age groups — 11-12 Girls and 11-12 Boys respectively.
Shaquil Flavius of Leon Hess Comprehensive Secondary School finished third in the Boys 11-12 age group, bringing home two silver medals and one bronze.
Senior swimmer Omar Alexander of SDA Academy placed first overall in the 15-17 Boys age group. He also swam to a first place finish in all three events, adding three golds to his collection.
The meet culminated with exhibition relays, including Omar leading a group of boys from both the primary and secondary levels to an exciting finish for the day.
The Racers Executive says ‘hats off’ to all their swimmers and looks forward to the upcoming I M Strong meet being hosted on June 17 by Sharks Swim Club.
Not only do they look hopefully for members on the various regional meets but are also excited about hosting Lucian Grand Prix in December, the last annual meet scheduled on the local swimming calendar.