With expectations high and confidence brimming, Jamaica’s swim team will splash into action at the 21st staging of the Caribbean Islands Swimming Championships (CISC) in Nassau, The Bahamas, today.

The 28-member delegation and their support group, comprising parents, departed the island via Caribbean Airlines yesterday for the June 29 to July 2 championship, which will feature 21 countries.

The 18 and over male and female teams of Michelle Dols, Trudi-Ann Patrick, Breanna Roman, Justin Plaschka, Dominic Walter, Sidrell Williams, Timothy Wynter — all based overseas-will take the spotlight as they exploit the championships with hopes of hitting the B or even A-standard Olympic qualifying times.

Other overseas-based swimmers include Kelsie Campbell out of England, Bryanna Renuart, Annabella Lyn, Joseph Cardozo, Keanan Dols, Jesse Marsh, Laura Lim Sang, and Nicholas and Simone Vale.

They will complement the eight local stars of Angara Sinclair, Emily MacDonald, Rajiv Redhi, Britney Williams, Chester Adams, Cameron Brown, Adrian Grant and Jordane Payne.

Gillian Millwood, one of two coaches for the team, remained firm in her bold, early prediction of 11 gold, seven silver and 11 bronze in a possible 29-medal haul for what she describes as one of the strongest ever units to represent the island.

“We are ready to go and we are expecting to see some great performances at this championship. My expectations are based on their current seed times, so those 29 medals that we are expecting are baseline projections, because we expect more out of the mixed relays and out of the 18 and over boys,” Millwood declared.

Millwood pointed out that four championship records previously set by Jamaican swimmers could also be rewritten based on the current form line of her swimmers, who are currently under those record times.

“This is based on their personal best versus where we have them ranked currently. When we match them up with some of their competitors and based on how they are performing at home, we are very confident in them,” she told the Jamaica Obsever.

She added: “The water in our pool is dead and the water they will be performing in is filtered, so I like to say it will be lighter, so they will feel a lot more buoyant, a lot more powerful in that water.

“So, we look at that and we are just expecting their competitiveness to just come right out. We don’t believe it is a matter of just the data we are projecting, but having watched these swimmers progress over time, we are excited for them and we look at how they respond when they were under pressure to step up and they have.”

The swimmers will participate in four age group categories which are 11-12, 13-14, 15-17 and the 18 and over.