Swimming goes to open water

Open water Swimming is to be included as part of the national swimming programme here, thanks to a six-month course organized by the St Vincent and the Grenadines National Olympic Committee and conducted by Barbadian Dave Farmer.{{more}}

At a press conference last Friday at Olympic House, Farmer said open water swimming is an emerging and popular sport.

He said a gradual start will be made to the discipline, which will be moved to the various communities and beaches in St Vincent.

Zooming in on the main objectives of the course, Farmer outlined: “Our objective in this long term programme will be to try develop swimming in the communities of St Vincent and the Grenadines; we want to develop swimming as a healthy activity. We also want to develop swimming as part of the schools’ curriculum within the local school system; we want to impress on the physical education teachers and principals that swimming is a healthy activity.

“We also want to work with the coaches on the island to improve their coaching education and their knowledge base; this, we believe, will be a tremendous asset in the long term,” he said.

Farmer believes that once the objectives are achieved, the local swimming association will have a broader base to source its talent, thus enabling it to carry out its activities effectively.

The course entails that Farmer, from time to time, return to St Vincent and the Grenadines to evaluate the work being done by the local swimming coaches under his tutelage.

Meanwhile, President of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Amateur Swimming Association Andre Cadogan expressed his delight at having such a course.

Looking at the outcome of the course, Cadogan said: “Out of this programme, I definitely see that swimming will go from strength to strength. We are preparing through this programme, with a keen focus in moving towards the next overseas championships which will be the OECS Championships in Antigua,” Cadogan explained.

The six-month course has been put at a cost of US$30,000. That was revealed by President of the National Olympic Committee Trevor Bailey, who also spoke at the press conference.(RT)