British West Indies Collegiate students Jack Parlee and Georgia Greatrex have made us proud. Both students attended the Nassau swimming meet last weekend and their performance secured a much sought after place at the CARIFTA games.

Jack Parlee, a year 10 student, participated in a large number of events including the 50 m Backstroke, 50m Butterfly and the 50 m Freestyle for which his outstanding performance saw him achieve the CARIFTA qualifying time. Jack said it was “all very exciting”.

Georgia Greatrex, a Year 8 student, who won convincingly in both the Backstroke and the 200m Individual Medley, said the whole experience as fun and that she looked forward to go back to Nassau again.

Both dedicated students trained extensively over a number of years, sometimes as much as 4 times per week, including 6:00 am training sessions in the dark.
Coach Morgan Luker from SURFside Ocean Academy said: “They both did amazing!!! And both had personal best swim times in all of their swim races. Jack ‘s time on his 50 metre freestyle qualified him to represent TCI in this year’s CARIFTA on the national swim team and he will be joining us in April for this competition. Georgia did exceptionally well in all of her races, and always with a smile, and is definitely someone to watch for next year’s CARIFTA and other swim meets in the future. The Team had a very positive, welcoming and inspiring weekend with great hosts in the Bahamas. They were able to learn so much from a larger (50 meter) pool and proper event equipment and officials. She went on to express her thanks for the dedication of Head Coach, Jennifer Martel, who not only trained the students every day, but did much of the organisation for the trip.

Ms Luker described the experience as “one of the best experiences of my life!!! I am so excited about the future of aquatics in this country with kids like this. Now we just need a proper pool”

Congratulations to all the participating students, coaches from SURFside Ocean Academy and their parents.