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The Turks and Caicos Swim Federation, in preparing for the 2023 CARIFTA Aquatics Championship to take place in Curacao from April 6 to 12, staged a fundraising swimmerthon on Saturday, March 25 at the International School of the Turks and Caicos Islands swimming pool in Leeward, Providenciales.
The event was held to raise funds to assist to offset flight, accommodation, and food costs. It was also an added training set-up for the athletes who will be heading to the swim meet, while serving as a talent-honing experience for other.
Angelina Lindenhahn, who had been to two CARIFTA Swimming Championships before, in 2019 and 2022 – and the Central American and Caribbean Swimming Federation (CCCAN ) meet in 2022, and also who, will be competing in the 15 to 17 category at CARIFTA this year, believes swimmerthons are good for youth development.
She said a similar event that the Swim Federation had before was a great experience for all the swimmers. The one though, according to her, was even more critical since it was a fundraiser to hep send the team to the CARIFTA Swimming Championships.
“…Because without all the background work and the fundraisers, we wouldn’t be able to send the team to CARIFTA. So, I think it is a great experience, and a very fun experience, as it is not like a regular CARIFTA Training, but one that is more involved with the public,” she said.
The budding 16-year-old backstroke specialist, who revealed that she relocated to the United Kingdom last September, deemed it a good experience coming back to the Turks and Caicos Islands to meet familiar and new members of the team.
In the next five years, Lindenhahn hopes to be invited to bigger meets to compete against the best across the world.
“…Maybe Olympics, if I continue. But I really do hope that I make my country proud, and bring back some medals for the TCI, whether it be CARIFTA or any other meets in the future,” Lindenhahn said.
Ethan Gardiner, 14, shared Lindenhahn’s views, stating also that swimmerthons are an innovative way of raising funds, as it opens an interactive portal to the community, as individuals would pay according to the number of lapse covered by a particular swimmer or swimmers.
Gardiner said also that such events opens an additional competitive avenue for the athletes to improve on their time. He told NewslineTCI that the team was in full preparing mode for CARIFTA, stepping up their training by adding days and hours.
Gardiner, who said his specialty is the breaststroke, stated that he will be working to get his 100m Freestyle race under a minute and his 50 Freestyle to 26 seconds at this year’s CARIFTA Championships.
Rishith Gururaja, 11, one of the swimmers working to develop themselves competitively, said the swimmerthon provided an added tool for him to improve.
Rishith, who has been a swimmer over the past two years, said he enjoyed the sport “a lot”. Rishith hopes one day to become a world renown swimmer, and believes the TCI Swim Federation has so far helped him a great deal.
VIEW ADDITIONAL PHOTOS OF THE EVENT.
