Canadian swimmers choose TT for training

A team of 13 — 11 athletes and two coaches — arrive in Trinidad tomorrow and dive right into the pool for a packed training schedule.

The Sports Company of TT (SporTT ), in a continuing effort to promote the Aquatic Centre as a hub for elite training activity, reached out to Canadian company Magik Tours, which conducted a site visit in early December ahead of the team’s arrival. According to Magik Tours representative Eli Daniels, “We’ve been around the world to marvellous facilities and what you have here is on par with everything we’ve seen. The coaches we work with ask us to scout various destinations and we heard about Trinidad. The facility is well laid out and very athlete-oriented so it’s ideal for training and for competition.” Head coach of the visiting CAMO team Claude St Jean is one of the top 10 coaches in Canada with over 37 years experience and 47 World Cup medals from athletes under his charge. One of the star athletes on the CAMO roster is Olympic, World Championship, Commonwealth and Pan Am medallist Katerine Savard, who most recently won gold with Canada’s 4x200-metre freestyle team at the 2016 World Swimming Championships (25m) in Windsor. It was the first ever swimming gold medal Canada had won on home soil on the world stage. Savard also won precious metal in her second Olympic Games in Rio 2016 — bronze, with team Canada in the 4x200m freestyle relay.

SporTT is partnering with the Tourism Development Company to facilitate the training camp which runs from tomorrow to January 10 at the National Aquatic Centre.