by Carol Ann Gollop | Jul 12, 2016 | Blog
The Barbados Girls 14&U Water Polo Team did well in their first competitive tournament. The ladies, led by local Head Coach Natalia Parris and Guest Coach Laszlo Hruza, did well in Montreal, Canada at the Haba Waba International Festival. The ladies showed great determination and passion throughout their games which is common among all Barbados teams. They won, they loss and they drew some games in their first ever tournament. It was an experience like no other and the ladies will grow from it and will be back to take on the region in December in Trinidad and at Carifta 2017 next year. Congratulations to Team Barbados Ladies, Head Coach Natalia Parris and a special Thank You to Laszlo for assisting the team. Natalia & girls, the Barbados Water Polo Club looks forward to your future tournaments with great anxiety and we are proud of you all.
by Carol Ann Gollop | Jul 4, 2016 | Blog, News
The XXI Caribbean Island Swimming Championships concluded on Saturday night with Barbados amassing a total of 11 Gold, 9 Silver and 14 Bronze medals over the four day championships. There were 3 new Individual Age Group Records – two going to McCallum Clarke and one to Nkosi Dundwoody and 1 Relay National Age Group record for Barbados (Tristan Pragnell, McCallum Clarke, Christopher Pollard and Zachary Taylor in the 11-12 Boys 4 x 100M Medley Relay). McCallum Clarke also broke the 16 year old CISC Meet record in the 200M Breaststroke. His time of 2:36.83 surpassed the old record of 2:40.87. Alex Sobers also broke the CISC Meet Record in the 400M Free event when he posted a time of 3:57.30 earning the top spot in that event.
Barbados finished 5th overall with 508 points. The Barbadian boys team placed 3rd overall with 296 points and the girls placed 5th overall with 188 points. 17 countries were eligible to receive points at the meet and over 500 athletes competed. Bahamas placed first overall (1060 points) with Puerto Rico (874 points) taking the second spot and Trinidad and Tobago (770.5 points) capturing 3rd place overall.
The highlight of the meet for Team Barbados came on the last night of competition when 17 year old Alex Sobers achieved an Olympic B qualifying time in the 400M Freestyle. The qualifying mark was 3:58.51 and young Sobers finished in a time of 3:57.30 in a brilliant finish way in front of the rest of the field with the next closest swimmer posting a time of 4:07.12. This earned Sobers his ticket to the 2016 Rio Olympics.