Puerto Rico confirmed as new hosts of CCCAN Championships
The Central American and Caribbean Amateur Swimming Confederation (CCCAN) has announced Puerto Rico as the new host for the 2021 staging of the prestigious event.
The event was slated to be hosted by Panama, but that country declared from last year that due to their COVID-19 situation they will not be able to host the event.
The new venue is the San Juan Aquatic Complex, and the meet will be held June 23-27. The San Juan Aquatic Complex features a 50m Olympic-sized pool and a separate diving well.
The pool also features a movable floor which makes it possible to vary the water depth from 3m deep to zero. The state-of-the-art facility includes a stainless gutter system that maintains the pool water at rim flow at all times thus contributing to a ‘fast’ pool. The facility can accommodate up to 2,000 spectators for swimming, diving and water polo events.
CCCAN released the event’s summons on Friday and noticeably absent are two key disciplines — water polo and artistic swimming. Only swimming and open water swimming will be contested.
The competition venue for swimming is Natatorio de San Juan, while for open water swimming it will be Laguna Del Condado.
The Puerto Rican Swimming Federation will oversee the organisation of the championships and will assist CCCAN in the preparation and development of the competitions.
With a venue now confirmed, it is now left to the Aquatic Sports Association of Jamaica (ASAJ) to decide if the federation will send a team to the event.
The ASAJ was given the green light to resume competition earlier this week and the news about CCCAN should provide impetus for local swimmers to get back into competitive action after a very long layoff.
After a second place finish at Carifta in 2019, Jamaica will be looking for a strong showing at CCCAN should they take part in the championships. A big challenge which will face the ASAJ is that the cohort of 15-17 age group athletes will be in final preparation mode for sitting the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) during the staging of this event.
— Dwayne Richards
