Sevenoaks Swimming Club swimmer, Jaedon Lynch, 12 yrs, has been selected to represent Jamaica in the 2018 Caribbean Swimming Championships to be held in Kingston, Jamaica over 29th March to 3rd April 2018 as part of the CARIFTA Games 2018.
On Saturday, the Aquatic Sports of Jamaica (ASAJ) announced the team which includes 12 overseas-based swimmers and 15 debutants most of whom will compete in the 11-12 age group, including Jaedon. He received the invitation this week to represent Jamaica from the National Coach. ASAJ president Martin Lyn believes the 36 chosen swimmers represent the best of the current active swimmers down to compete in all events, as the selection committee had a very difficult task of narrowing the list.
Jaedon started swimming at the age of five and joined Sevenoaks from Dartford Swimming Club in March 2017. He is ranked in the top three for all the events he has qualified for at the CARIFTA’s and is in a strong position to bring home Gold medals in many events. He is currently the fastest qualifier for 100 Back, 50/100/200 Breast, 50/100/200 fly and 200 IM. Jaedon will be competing in the 11-12 year old category against swimmers from 27 Caribbean countries. He qualifies through his parents as he holds dual nationality for Jamaica and the UK.
A swimmer qualifies for national (international age group swimming events) selection by achieving AA time standard or higher in at least two events and must be ranked first or second place in those events.
“Jamaica has proposed one of the strongest teams that we have ever fielded for a CARIFTA Swimming Championships; the fact that we will be hosts allows us to name a lot of swimmers this time around… so that is good for us,” Lyn told the Jamaica Observer.
“Our younger age group indicates that we definitely have depth in Jamaican aquatics and the objective of swimming at home is to ensure that we use home court to our advantage. That, coupled with the fact that we have some strong members on the team, means we can look forward to positive results from our athletes.”
Sevenoaks Swimming Club wishes Jaedon the very best of luck during the competition and look forward to hearing of his undoubted success on his return. The whole club is incredibly proud of his achievement.
The CARIFTA Games is an annual athletics and swimming competition founded by the Caribbean Free Trade Association (CARIFTA). The games were first held in 1972 and only countries associated with CARIFTA may compete in the competition. Previous competitors include superstars such as Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake.
