BIRMINGHAM, England — National swim coach Wendy Lee described Jamaica’s historic representation at the Commonwealth Games as a proud moment for the island’s swimming programme and expressed satisfaction with the efforts of the island’s young swimmers on Friday’s opening day of competition at the Sandwell Aquatics Centre.

Seven swimmers are in Birmingham representing the island, the largest team assembled at this level, and Lee, while underlining the individual and collective impact that the experience will provide, expressed gratitude to the Jamaica Olympic Association for providing the opportunity for the young swimmers to be exposed to high-level competition at a crucial stage of their development.

“It was the first day ever that seven national swimmers got an opportunity to represent Jamaica at a senior-level competition. It’s a very proud moment for swimming in Jamaica and as coach of Jamaica, I just want to extend a big thank you to the Jamaica Olympic Association for recognising the hard work of our athletes and for giving swimming such a valuable opportunity,” Lee told the Jamaica Observer.

“This is certainly a huge moment for us, so we are very proud of what we accomplished today.”

Lee singled out 17-year-old Zaneta Alvaranga, Kito Campbell and the more experienced Keanan Dols for their performances Friday.

“Zaneta Alvaranga did a 100-metre butterfly and as a coach, I have to say I have never seen her swim so smoothly and I’ve never seen Zaneta have such a perfect execution of a race,” Lee said. “The last 15 metres of the race when you’re swimming the 100 metre butterfly can be very challenging and she was actually to follow right through and it was a very amazing swim,” said Lee.

“Keanan Dols who has the most experience on the team certainly did lead the team and he had a huge time drop in his 100-metre backstroke. So that has also been a very amazing performance and then Kito Campbell, who swam the 200m breaststroke, which is the least favourite of his breaststroke events, was the first time in his life that he went under two minutes and 30 seconds for that event. So if he is able to do that in the 200m breaststroke, which is the most challenging event for him, we expect nothing but greatness from him (for the rest of the competition),” said Lee.

Alvaranga, 1:03.02, was third in her women’s 100m butterfly heat with another Kelsie Leigh Campbell, 1:04.32, finishing eighth in her heat. Sidrell Williams, 35.32, was also eighth in his men’s 50m butterfly heat, while Mackenzie Headley finished seventh in the heats of the women’s 50m breaststroke in 33.85.

Dols, who competed at last year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo, won his men’s 100m backstroke heat in 57.80 seconds while Nathaniel Thomas was fourth in 1:00.27. Kito Campbell was seventh in his men’s 200m backstroke heat with a time of 2:29.95.

“In general, the athletes were faster than, or very close to, their best times and that’s explainable when you’re an athlete competing for the first time at such a high level, so just in general, and as a coach, I’m very pleased with the performances. I’m sure that the athletes themselves are beaming,” she added.

Four swimmers will be in action in the pool today.

Headley, Alvaranga and Kelsie Leigh Campbell will line up in the women’s 50m freestyle heats, while Kito Campbell will compete in the men’s 100m breaststroke heats.