Liam Car­ring­ton will lead a for­mi­da­ble 31-mem­ber T&T swim team in­to the Carif­ta Swim­ming and Open Wa­ter Cham­pi­onships. Cur­rent­ly a stand­out per­former at the pres­ti­gious Bolles High School in Flori­da, Car­ring­ton en­ters the com­pe­ti­tion with a rep­u­ta­tion as one of the re­gion’s elite tal­ents fol­low­ing his dom­i­nant dis­plays in the pool last year.

​Car­ring­ton’s in­clu­sion in the 15-17 Boys cat­e­go­ry pro­vides a mas­sive boost to the na­tion­al del­e­ga­tion. He is joined in that di­vi­sion by a deep ros­ter of tal­ent, in­clud­ing Jaden Mills, Jonathan Som­bra­no, Aaron Colthrust, An­pherne Bernard, Isa­iah Alexan­der, and Jaden Ramdeen. This vet­er­an core is ex­pect­ed to be the en­gine room for the TTO medal count as they face off against the Caribbean’s best.

​The tech­ni­cal team, steered by head coach (Swim­ming) Deronn Sam­lals­ingh and head coach (Open Wa­ter) Mau­rice Faria, has se­lect­ed a squad that bal­ances high-end in­ter­na­tion­al ex­pe­ri­ence with a surg­ing wave of youth tal­ent. The 11-12 Boys di­vi­sion is par­tic­u­lar­ly well-rep­re­sent­ed with eight ath­letes, in­clud­ing Julius En­nals, Khalil Braith­waite, and Tay­lan Di­az.

​In the girls’ cat­e­gories, the 13-14 di­vi­sion will in­clude Tay­lor Marchan, Zara Per­si­co, and Mare­na Mar­tinez lead­ing the charge. Mar­tinez is set for a gru­elling sched­ule, as she is al­so the sole rep­re­sen­ta­tive for the 14-15 girls in the Carif­ta Open Wa­ter team. The 15-17 girls will see Hol­land-based Bel­mar twin sis­ters, Rae­gan and Bre­an­na, team­ing up with Anya Davis to chal­lenge for podi­um spots.

Along­side Mar­tinez in the Open Wa­ter con­tin­gent, the 16-18 boys trio of Mar­cus Alexan­der, Alexan­der Al­leyne, and Kyle Ab­hay Boodram will be look­ing to nav­i­gate the cur­rents to suc­cess. The 16-18 girls Open Wa­ter squad fea­tures Ava Josephine Charles, Alexan­dra Carr and Ir­mani Smith.

​Sup­port­ing the ath­letes is an ex­pe­ri­enced coach­ing staff fea­tur­ing Hazel Haynes, Mark Ri­vas, and for­mer Olympian Sharn­telle McLean as as­sis­tant coach­es.

Michelle Gib­bins will serve as the man­ag­er for the tour. While the ath­lete ros­ter is fi­nalised, the fed­er­a­tion has not­ed that the names of the chap­er­ones will be com­mu­ni­cat­ed once the in­ter­view process is com­plete.

​With Car­ring­ton at the helm and a bal­anced blend of speed and en­durance across all age groups, T&T is ready to make a sig­nif­i­cant splash on the re­gion­al stage this year.

Team TTO Carif­ta team

Swim­ming

Girls 11-12: Za­hara An­tho­ny, Seren­i­ty Pan­tin, Katelon Leera, Na’Ziya George

Boys 11-12: Julius En­nals, Khalil Braith­waite, Tay­lan Di­az, Mic­ah Alexan­der, Eli Ed­wards, Wy­att Har­ri­son, Keenan Ser­rette, Liam Lee Mc Burnie

Girls 13-14: Tay­lor Marchan, Zara Per­si­co, Mare­na Mar­tinez, Za­lay­har Lewis, Ki­mari An­toine

Boys 13-14: Ethan McMil­lan Cole, Xaiden Valen­tine, Nkosi Bap­tiste, Kyle Leera

Girls15-17: Rae­gan Bel­mar, Bre­an­na Bel­mar, Anya Davis

Boys 15-17: Liam Car­ring­ton, Jaden Mills, Jonathan Som­bra­no, Aaron Colthrust, An­pherne Bernard, Isa­iah Alexan­der, Jaden Ramdeen

Open Wa­ter

Girls 14-15: Mare­na Mar­tinez

Boys 14-15: Kristin Allen, Chad Ba­boolal

Girls 16-18: Ava Josephine Charles, Alexan­dra Carr, Ir­mani Smith

Boys 16-18: Mar­cus Alexan­der, Alexan­der Al­leyne, Kyle Ab­hay Boodram

Tech­ni­cal Team

Swim­ming: Deronn Sam­lals­ingh (Head coach)

Open Wa­ter: Mau­rice Faria (Head coach)

As­sis­tant Coach­es: Hazel Haynes, Sharn­telle McLean, Mark Ri­vas

Team Man­ag­er: Michelle Gib­bins