Bristol earns medal for SVG

Thirteen-year-old Brandon Bristol is bubbling with excitement about achieving this country’s first medals at the OECS Junior Swimming Championships.{{more}}

Bristol earned a silver and a bronze medal at the 2011 sub regional championships, which were staged in St. Lucia last weekend.

Competing in the 11-12 age group, Bristol gained silver in the 50 metre Breaststroke and bronze in the 50 metre Freestyle.

Admitting that it was a case of hard work paying off, Bristol, a second form student of the St. Vincent Grammar School, told SEARCHLIGHT last Wednesday, “We trained harder about a month before the Championships and with the larger team, we were confident of bringing back a medal.”

With a natural affinity for the water, having been born and raised on the Grenadine island of Canouan, Bristol said that his love for swimming is a matter of course.

Bristol thought that his two coaches, Neisha Alexander and Rickydene Alexander, were instrumental in his a medal achievement.

“I was turning well and they helped a lot with that,” Bristol, who also competes in Track and Field Athletics, admitted.

Bristol is hoping that his achievement of the two medals will bring an awareness of the sport to Vincentians.

One of Bristol’s coaches, Neisha Alexander, who was on hand, said she was not daunted by the fact that her swimmers practice in a ten foot pool but are required to compete in a 25 foot facility in St. Lucia.

She was high in praise for the benevolence of Stephen Joachim who, she said, afforded them the use of his pool at Villa.

Alexander said that in addition to the pool, the swimmers used the sea for strength training.

The female coach said because of the inexperience of her young charges and their lack of exposure to larger sized pools, the swimmers were restricted to the shorter distances.

Alexander said that despite their challenges, the SVG Swimming Association is endeavouring to send a team to the Junior Carifta Championships, set for Barbados in April this year.

Apart from Bristol, the other members of the Vincentian contingent were Arthur Laborde, Zephal Bailey, Storm Halbich, Shane Joachim, Nikolas Sylvester, Sylvian Schaedle Cruz Halbich, Shane Cadogan, Justin Sylvester, Alexander Joachim, Zoe Porter, Kayla Gibson, and Ria Adams. (RT)