Though not fielding a large team as they did last year, Aquatic Sports Association of Jamaica (ASAJ) vice-president with responsibility for swimming Georgia Sinclair believes the recently named 27-member team possesses enough quality to continue the country’s dominance at the Carifta Swimming Championships next month.

The team, which includes several debutants, is well shy of last year’s 33-strong that copped Jamaica’s largest ever haul of 64 medals — 17 gold, 25 silver and 22 bronze — in the history of the championship, bettering the previous best tally of 59 medals won in 2019.

Then, Jamaica also placed second on the overall points standing with 833.75 points behind The Bahamas on 975 points.

While it is left to be seen if the current crop of young sensations can match or even surpass those records, Sinclair is confident that the team is strong enough to again demonstrate their immense prowess among their more illustrious regional rivals at the April 6-9 event in Curacao.

“It is a very strong team and I think they will put on a good showing at the Carifta Swimming Championships. With a team as strong as this, we expect as usual to do well in the sprint events and the relays,” Sinclair told the Jamaica Observer.

“Our swimmers have really been working hard and their coaches have been ensuring that their training programmes are geared to having them peak for the Championship, so I expect us to put in some strong performances,” she added.

But, the Observer understands that there are concerns about the absence of a few swimmers who were not ratified for the team to give Jamaica the best combined relay option as mentioned in the By-Laws Procedure 16.1.1 currently on the ASAJ’s website.

Point 13 of that by-law procedure states that all relay teams will be selected based on a combination of swimmers that equals or betters the eighth-place median time of a relay event over the last three years, irrespective of being automatic qualifiers to the Carifta team. It adds that in the absence of any such combination, the automatic qualifiers will be selected to swim the relay event.

Based on that, as well as current rankings, the likes of Zane Smith, Dirk Harrison, Renae Chung and Asher Davis could have bolstered the team to some extent.

However, Sinclair pointed out that the team was well selected based on criteria and, as such, she expects the swimmers to deliver on the high expectations at the championship.

“Yes, we are fielding our strongest team based on the selection criteria. Jamaica did well at the Carifta Championships last year and I don’t think this one will be any different,” Sinclair declared.

“We have also selected one female swimmer, Alyssa Jefferson, for Open Water and four males, Benjamin Davis, Zack-Andre Johnson, Nathan Wright, and Charles McIntosh,” she ended.