Jamaica Olympic Association (JOA) President Christopher Samuda has urged emerging swimmers to make the best of opportunities provided for them today and reminded that procrastination is indeed the thief of time.

He also challenged handlers of aquatic athletes to play their part in creating the environment suited for the development of talent and the platform to showcase that talent post-haste.

Samuda made the call as he delivered the keynote address at the media launch of the Jetcon ‘Y’ Speedos Karl Dalhouse Invitational Swim Meet at National Aquatic Centre on Wednesday.

The meet, which will be held January 31-February 2 at National Aquatic Centre, is celebrating 25 years of excellence in the pool. The YMCA, which is the parent body of ‘Y’ Speedos Swim Club, is this year celebrating 100 years.

The 2020 edition of the Karl Dalhouse meet is expected to see over 500 athletes representing clubs from Jamaica, Bolivia, The Cayman Islands and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

Of added significance, the meet is accredited by the global governing body of the sport, FINA, and will serve as a qualifying event for the Olympics, Carifta Swimming Championships and the subcontinental CCCAN meet.

“Inevitably people say Jamaica is blessed with talent, so we have to make sure that we don’t only bring the talent to the fore, but to ensure that we give opportunities in sports that people can build careers after sports. Therefore, the time is now and we can’t afford to waste time any further.

“People have to understand that when we take charge of young lives it is a critical undertaking with responsibilities, and you can’t postpone the future of the youth to tomorrow, you have to create it today, because tomorrow does not make any certain promise to anybody,” Samuda told the Jamaica Observer after his address to an enraptured audience of stakeholders, including young swimmers.

The JOA boss says a heavy burden of responsibility rests with functionaries of sport in general, in nurturing talent in a time-sensitive manner to ensure that individuals self-actualise in the moment.

“People must also contextualise sports because there are so many people getting into competitive sports, and once you have identified a talent, it is your responsibility as administrators, coaches, managers, doctors, physiotherapists, to bring that talent up quickly because tomorrow there will be emerging talent ready to take the place of that talent, so you have to give young people the opportunity to excel today, do not wait until tomorrow…build today so they can be legacy creators for tomorrow,” Samuda said.

The sports executive, who is a lawyer by profession, paid tribute to ‘Y’ Speedos Swim Club for providing the fertile ground in bringing sporting talent into the spotlight.

“Competition is a critical element of excellence and achieving, and what ‘Y’ Speedos Swim Club has done is to make sure that it provides an environment of competition that will make our athletes acclimatised to competition on the international stage, and this behoves clubs to ensure they put on swim meets that are accredited and approved by FINA, so they can give young people that environment of healthy competition, so that when they go abroad and go on the international stage, it will not be an entirely different experience.

“So you hone the talent from it is young, expose it on the environment of competition, then the rivalry, the sportsmanship, the ability to ensure you perform at your optimum all the time, the ability to know that what you do is not only in the interest of your club, but your country, so all of those values and attributes will [breed] an environment of friendly rivalry and the Karl Dalhouse swim meet does this.

“So my charge to the other clubs is to stage your competition of international standards and do not just stage a meet that is routine; look at international best practices and ensure that your meets mirror those practices,” Samuda ended.

President of local governing body Aquatic Sports Association of Jamaica (ASAJ) Martin Lyn says the Karl Dalhouse meet “fits in very well” into his association’s calendar.

“It is an excellent meet and it comes about just when the athletes have tapered, in our sport that means you have reached the point of excellence…tapering means you are at the top of the curve.

“A lot of coaches have their athletes tapering at about this time, and that’s why this particular meet always have record-breakers and I can guarantee that some records will be broken next week; sometimes they are meet records, sometimes they are national records, and occasionally, we have age group records, which is also excellent.

“So the fact of the matter of this meet coming at this particular time is very important to us…it’s a meet that stimulates and throws the gauntlet down by athletes to say what to expect from them for the rest of the year,” noted Lyn.

President of ‘Y’ Speedos Swim Club John Sinclair says he is proud of the growth of the meet as it continues to build out in key areas.

“To have FINA endorse a meet like this speaks to the quality of it, so our history of quality has given them the assurance that this meet is worthy to be an international meet qualifier.

“We are very proud of it as we have been able to attract international attention and competition, and it is no secret that swimmers swim faster when the competition steps up. The more the profile of the meet is raised, the sport will get bigger and better,” he stated.

Among those down to compete for qualifying times for the upcoming Carifta Swimming Championships in Barbados over the Easter weekend are National representatives Briana Anderson, Giani Francis, Karci Gibson, Dirk Harrison, Christanya Shirley and Kyle Sinclair, who are all members of ‘Y’ Speedos.

Other National players down to compete are Zaneta Alvaranga, Kaheem Lozer, Nelson Denny, Kokolo Foster, Sabrina Lyn, Nathaniel Thomas, Leanna Wainwright, Britney Williams, Josh Johnson, and Saida Brown.