Swimmers Athena Gaskin, Britany van Lange and Onika George will represent Guyana at the Amateur Swimming Association of Trinidad and Tobago (ASATT) Invitational Age Group Championships to be held at the Marlins Swimming Pool, Trinidad starting tomorrow.
Gaskin and van Lange are scheduled to depart this morning for the twin island republic to participate in the four day meet.
George is expected to depart tomorrow morning, prior to participating in an event later in the afternoon.
George is the youngest participant of the three-member team and will participate in the 11-12 years age group.
Gaskin will compete in the 15 years and over age category while van Lange will participate in the 13 – 14 age group category.
George’s first event will be the 50m backstroke tomorrow.
She is also scheduled to participate in the 100m freestyle on Friday and the 100m backstroke and 50m freestyle races as the competition winds down on Sunday.
Gaskin will first take to the pool on Friday in the 400m freestyle.
She will then compete in the 100m freestyle and 50m butterfly events.
Gaskin will also be in the 200m freestyle and 50m breaststroke events on Saturday and the 200m individual medley (IM), 50m freestyle and 100m breaststroke on Sunday.
In what is her final year in the 13 – 14 age category, van Lange will participate in the 50m, 100m, 200m and 400m freestyle, the 50m and 100 butterfly, and the 50m, 100m and 200m backstroke events.
Having spent the past few weeks practicing in the 50m swimming pool of the National Aquatic Center, at Pattenson, both Gaskin and van Lange told this newspaper that they are eager to see how they will perform at the Trinidad meet.
“Training in the 50m pool has actually been very useful because the ASATT meet will be in a 50m pool and it’s my last year in my age category and I just really want to do my best,” van Lange, the Goodwill Games multiple gold medalist said.
This will be the first competitive meet that the swimmers will be participating since they began training in the 50m pool.
This is also the first time that the swimmers will be privileged to have trained in a 50m pool prior to participating in a long course meet.
With a number of personal best times being attained by the swimmers with each successive participation during the year, the swimmers are especially anxious to see how they shape up at the prestigious Trinidad meet, where they are expected to come up against some of the Caribbean’s best swimmers.
Gaskin is the only repeat participant from last year’s team that represented Guyana at the event.
Last year five Guyanese swimmers, including Niall Roberts, travelled from Guyana to participate in the event, in addition to Guyana’s Jessica Stephenson and Noelle Smith, who were both residing in Trinidad at the time.
All three swimmers have been representing Guyana throughout the year, having been a part of the team that represented Guyana at the Goodwill Games, also held in Trinidad in August.
The three swimmers also represented Guyana at the tri-nation Inter-Guiana Games that was held in Suriname during October.
