High Performance Camp for Swimmers selected for Tokyo

Jun 09, 2021 Sports

By Sean Devers

Jamila Sanmoogan

Olympian Jamila Sanmoogan and Andrew Fowler have been given ‘wild cards’ to attend the Olympics in Tokyo from July 23 to August 2021 and the Guyana Amateur Swimming Association (GASA) has been able to enter National Swimmers into a FINA high performance training camp in preparation for the Olympics.“This initiative is a collaborative effort between GASA and the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA),”stated GASA President Dwayne Scott.

Andrew Fowler

The universality places (wild card) typically allow smaller nations and those with developing swimming programmes to send athletes to the Olympics.
The main Olympic qualifying criteria set up ‘A’ and ‘B’ time standards for athletes to qualify. But if a nation has no athletes selected that way, it can still be represented in swimming at the Olympics through the universality system.
In short, the system allows a nation with no Olympic swimming qualifier to enter up to one man and one woman in the Olympics.

Leon Seaton

The training camp will be hosted at the AZURA Aquatics facility in Florida, USA. The camp will be run by FINA approved coach Gianluca Albertan. The Camp Commenced on June 1, 2021 and will run until the 10th July, 2021.
The 25-year-old Fowler competed in Florida last month where he clocked a personal best of 26.44s in the 50m Butterfly, and represented Guyana at the FINA World Championships held in South Korea in 2019.
The 24-year-old Sanmoogan, along with Hannibal Gaskin represented Guyana at the Rio 2016 Olympics.
Both swimmers missed last month’s four-day Puerto Rico International Olympic Qualifier.
It is understood that the qualifying period for the Olympics conclude on June 27 and Scott informed that there are still about two or three more such Events until the Olympics.
“Our two Swimmers are not vying for qualification, they are already going… but what are trying to do is to expose them to International competition and a chance for them to improve their times for the Olympics.
At the end of the day we want to be proud of what we showcase to the World at the Olympics,” Scott stated.
Sanmoogan and Fowler were selected for this training Camp after being recently shortlisted to represent Guyana at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
Fowler departed Guyana for the camp on June 1, while Sanmoogan’s departure is still pending due to commitments with school informed Scott who took over from previous President Ivan Persaud.
Meanwhile, young Leon Seaton, who is currently on a Scholarship at the ZURA facility, is slated to return to Guyana at the end of this month.
Competing in the Puerto Rico international Open (PRESO) last month, Silver Shark Aquatic Swim Club’s 17-year-old Seaton Jr clocked a personal best of 28.10 in the preliminary rounds of the men’s 50m fly to shave of .0.3 of his entry time and followed it up with another PB time 1:08.04 in the 100m backstroke after starting the Event with a time of 1:10.87.
“Additionally, a team of local swimmers is slated to depart Guyana to take part in a regional meet in Bahamas at the end of the month. We are extremely grateful to the Olympic Association for supporting this initiative and we know our swimmers will benefit greatly from this taking into consideration all the challenges we face,” concluded Scott.

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