This country's swimmers will splash off their campaign at the 39th Carifta Swimming Championship with preliminary heats at the National Aquatic Centre, Wildey, St Michael, Barbados from 9 am today.
The meet is an approved qualifier for the 18th FINA World Championship which takes place in Gwanju, Korea later this year as well as the Pan American Games in Lima, Peru and the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.
Yesterday afternoon, the 35-member T&T swimming contingent left for Barbados and head coach Brian Wickham said he was very confident of the team's chances of reclaiming the overall title last won in 2010.
Last year, T&T swimmers under the guidance of head coach Shawn Pouchet placed fourth at the 38th Carifta Swimming Championship in Kingston, Jamaica.
Last year, the team led by Zarek Wilson’s 11 gold medals, nine of which were individually won, T&T ended the four days of competition (115 events) with 45 medals (19 gold, 19 silver and seven bronze), second in terms of medals only to champion Bahamas, who bagged 56 medals (23 gold, 22 silver and 11 bronze).
Two years ago, T&T also placed fourth in the Bahamas while it last captured the title in 2010 in Jamaica after victory in Aruba, a year earlier as well.
In addition to Wilson, the T&T team will rely on the performances of USA-based Gabriela Donahue, Zoe Anthony and Nikoli Blackman to come out on top ahead of the 23 other participating countries.
Speaking before the team's departure at the Piarco International Airport, Wickham said: "Our preparations over the last month I would say has been excellent."
He added,"In the past as a team we would normally have training sessions once per week, but this time we stepped it up quite a bit with training sessions three times weekly as we targeted bringing the swimmers up to a level for us to improve on our fourth-place finish at the last two editions of the competition.
"And overall as a coaching group we have been all pleased with how things have gone with a general increase in speed and improvement in times by almost all the swimmers, so we are expecting great things.
With regards to the inclusion of Donahue who was not part of the team last time out due to other commitments, Wickham said her inclusion is a welcome one.
"She (Donahue) is going to add significant value to the girls 15-17 age-group as well as the team in general as we seek to reclaim the title," ended Wickham.
Today when competition begins, T&T swimmers will compete in the 800m freestyle, 1500m freestyle, 200m breaststroke, 100m backstroke, and 4x100m freestyle relay heats ahead of the finals from 6 pm this evening while tomorrow, the 200m freestyle, 50m butterfly, 100m backstroke, 400m individual medley and 4x100m medley relays will come off with competition concluding on Tuesday.
The other countries taking part includes Antigua & Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Curacao, Dominica, French Guiana, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, St Kitts/Nevis, St Lucia, St Maarten, St Martin, St Vincent and The Grenadines, Turks & Caicos, US Virgin Islands and host Barbados.
Last weekend, when the water polo segment of the Carifta Games was held at the same venue in Barbados, T&T dominated with gold medals in the 14 and Under Co-Ed, 19 and Under Boys, 19 and Under Girls, and a silver in the 16 and Under Boys age-group competitions.
Following the Carifta Swimming, the Open Water events will take place at Carlisle Bay on Wednesday.
And on completion of the Carifta Aquatic Championship, the T&T swimmers will then compete at the Central American and Caribbean Amateur Swimming Confederation (CCCAN), from June 24- July 8 also in Barbados.