ALL hands on deck as the Rodney Heights Aquatic Centre prepares for its annual invitational swim meet drawing regional swim clubs to Saint Lucia. On Tuesday 12th March 2019 the organizers and sponsors gathered to launch the coming of this festive swimming tradition.
This year RHAC celebrates its 20th year of hosting this Invitational Swim Meet, which will be held from Thursday 11th – Monday 15th April. (Monday 15th April being an Open Water event).
Dubbed as “RHAC Invitational”, this Saint Lucia Aquatic Federation sanctioned meet operates under the theme “Friendship through Competition” bringing swimmers to our shores from Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, Barbados, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago annually providing an avenue to develop skills and forge friendships across the seas.
After 20 years, this year will be a sure cause for celebration. With the growing number of annual swimming events hosted in Saint Lucia, the RHAC Invitational has longevity in which no others can boast. By pure determination and perseverance to continue in the growth and development of swimming as a sport, Dr. Diane Worrell has year after year orchestrated this event fine tuning it to one of the events on the regional calendar. Her pure dedication to love of swimming has propelled her to continually host this event.
Stepping up the competition this year will be teams from Martinique and Guadeloupe. Although teams from Martinique have competed over the last couple of years, this is the first time swimmers from Guadeloupe will be attending RHAC Invitational.
Excitedly Dr. Diane Worrell, Meet Director, reports over 200 swimmers have already been registered to compete. With registration not due for a few more days, this year’s meet looks to draw well over 350 swimmers working to achieve personal bests and set records in short 25 metres sprints to long distance 1500 metres freestyle.
The Aquatic Centre promises to be overflowing with excitement from spectators throughout the 4 day pool event. Noting the high number of spectators and swimmers, local businesses and the Saint Lucia Tourism Authority have started to come on board to market their various services in efforts to gain financial boost. With regional growth in attendance year after year, many local businesses come back with continued support.