The Harbor Club in Rodney Bay, one of Saint Lucia’s newest Hotels will play host to the Saint Lucia Amateur Swimming Association Annual National Swimming Awards on 3 June at 2.00pm.
SLASA will create history for being the first National Sports Association to host a sporting awards ceremony at that facility.
According to Sue Monplaisir, SLASA Public Relation Officer, the awards will be presented to the top performing swimmers of various clubs.
Certificates will be presented to teams who represented Saint Lucia at the CARIFTA Swim Championship, CCCAN, Fina Worlds, Fina Juniors Worlds, Goodwill Swim Championship and the OECS Swim Meet.
Monplaisir said, “The focus however will be on presenting individual awards to the top performing swimmers in various categories to include the top team Player, Most Improved Swimmers, Age Group awards, Stroke Awards, and Swimmer of the year awards. The customary Coach of the Year and The Pat Charles Award will also be awarded.”
She said, “The event is expected to be an exciting one celebrating the success and achievements of swimming in Saint Lucia.”
Members of the CARIFTA Swim Team (Bahamas 2017) were – Katie Kyle, Mikaili Charlemange, Niama Hazell, Jyasi Daniel, Jamarr Archibald, Jayhan Odlum Smith and Terrel Monplaisir.
For the Caribbean and Central America Swim Championship (CCCAN 2017) held in Trinidad and Tobago, it was a similar team with the exception of Jyasi Daniel. Team Saint Lucia finished 16th overall tying with Surname with 25.5 points.
Katie Kyle, captured silver in the 50 metres fly and bronze in the 100 metres fly. Jayhan Odlum-Smith and Terrel Monplaisir set National and Age Group records in the 200 metres fly and 100 metres backstroke.
The Commonwealth Youth Games (CYG) is an international multi-sport event organized by the Commonwealth Games Federation that took place in the Bahamas. Saint Lucia representatives were Katie Kyle and Jyasi Daniel.
Saint Lucia was also represented at the 17th FINA World’s Junior Championship in Budapest, Hungary in July. The team comprised, Jayhan Odlum-Smith in the 50 metres and 100 metres butterfly, Jean Luc- Zephir in the 50 metres and 100 metres freestyle and Mikaili Charlemange in the 50 metres and 100 metres freestyle.
A 26 member swimmers representing Saint Lucia in Guyana August 18th to 20th 2017 finished 5th with a total of 314.5 points at the 23rd Goodwill Swim Championship. Over 200 swimmers from six countries including Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago and Suriname. Newly invited countries Bahamas and Grenada and host country Guyana competed over the 3 day meet.
The Saint Lucia team won several medals bringing home 6 Gold, 8 Sliver and 7 bronze medals, netting a total of 21 medals.
The top performing swimmers included Antoine Destang with 3 Gold medals in 50Free, 100Free and 50 Fly, 2 silver medals in 100 Individual Relay and 50 Breast and 1 Bronze in 50 Back from a total of 6 events and walking away with the top points in the overall 8 and under Goodwill swimmers. Antoine also broke five Age Group records in 100 Free, 100 IM, 50 Free, 50 Fly and 50 Breast.
Ziv Reynolds with a double Gold in 50 metres and 100 metres Breast as well as Omar Alexander with 1 Gold in 50 Free and 1 Bronze in 50 Back, D’Andre Blanchard with 1 Silver in 50 Breast, Naekeisha Louis with 1 Silver in 50 Fly, Marisa Louisy with 1 in 50 Back and the Relay team comprising Naekeisha Louis, JorjaMederick, Sunshine Mauricette and Anya Hilaire with 1 silver in the 200 Free and a bronze in 400 Free relay.
In November, the OECS swim rivalry continued between Grenada and host nation Saint Lucia, but when the final points were announced Grenada edged out Saint Lucia by 16 points. Saint Lucia, with 34 members finished in 2nd place with a combined score of 1,344 points.
The top individual performances for Saint Lucia over the three days of competition were 8 and Under Antoine Destang contributing 63 points and breaking a total of six OECS records in the Male 8 and Under 25 meter Freestyle, 50 Freestyle, 100 metres freestyle 25 metres back 25 metres Fly and 100 metres IM. Destang also broke two age group records in 50 Metres Free and 25 Metres Fly.
Niama Hazell made her mark by racking up a total 57 points and breaking the 11-12 Girls Age Group record in 50 metres Freestyle and 50 Breast stroke.
In the 11 – 12 Boys D’Andre Blanchard a top performer amassed 66.5 points.
These are just some of the high points by Saint Lucia swimmers in 2017 as they look to celebrate their achievement in the coming days.
