The synchronised swimmers created quite a buzz in Curacao at CISC and earned themselves the bronze medal. - Contributed WHILE JAMAICA was focusing all its attention on the World Junior Games, the national synchronised swim team (a part of the national swim team) was quietly making their own splash. The team came away with a bronze medal in the Caribbean Island Swim Championships (CISC), which took place in Curacao recently.
The CISC takes place every two years and is next scheduled to take place in Jamaica. This year, six countries competed in the synchronised swimming portion of the competition and placed as follows: Aruba, the Netherland Antilles (Curacao), Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Guadeloupe and Barbados.
Jamaica and Barbados are the youngest countries to the competition, both having entered for the first time at its last staging. This year, Jamaica erupted from the bottom of the pool to earn themselves third place. The team sent was made up of six young women Nicole Chin Shue (13 years old), Emily Eyre (14 years old), Rebecca Wong (13 years old), Kristen Smith (14 years old), Yasmin Eyre (14 years old) and Michela Lee (18 years old).
The team's assistant coach, Susanna Oqunnaika-Cooke, stated that the team truly distinguished themselves at the competition. "It was hard not to notice the Jamaican team," she explained. "Their level was so much higher this year. The artistic component was very strong." Mrs. Oqunnaika-Cooke further stated that they received several compliments on the artistry of their performances, even when the technical component was not as strong. She also stated that a cameraman was actually moved to tears by Emily Eyre's solo piece, which was an adaptation of 'Rosewood'.
As such, although they had not walked with their own fan base, the team earned themselves one as the other countries urged them on.
Although the team was made up members of the Island Aquatic Swim club, the island's lone synchronised swim club, they had to reach a certain qualifying score to become a part of the national swim team.
This was not easy and saw the young women putting in several hours of very intense rehearsal, beginning in March. As any beautician will tell you, beauty is a very painful process and synchronised swimming is no different. Behind the grace and beauty of the artform/sport is a lot rigourous work. The participants must hone their water craft for 12 hours each week (of which they need to attend a minimum of 80 per cent). This is combined with two hours at the gym for weights training and a morning run at least every two weeks. Additionally, most of the team members dance once per week.
Their swimming speeds must also be on par with the other members of the national swim team and thus they must enter meets to gain the qualifying times. This means that they enter all the swim meets until they attain their goal. However, as one of the swimmers pointed out, even in they reached the time from the first match, their head coach, Kathy Lim Sang, would still have them enter all the meets to keep them in form.
To top this off, as the programme must not affect their education process, the members of the team need to maintain at least a 'B' average in school. The members of the team are serious about their craft, however, and have learnt to use their time wisely. One of the keys seems to be to make up for lost sleep in the car on the way to school. The other is to make sure you pay attention in class, because you will not have time to make up for it.
Time is, quite literally, of the essence for them. They generally practice six days for the week and had to make it seven twice, as Michela made sure to stress. Michela Lee is majoring in textiles at the Edna Manely College for the Visual and Performing Arts and, at 18, is in her last year of regional competition. However, she impressed at the competition and so raised recruiting interest for a varsity programme.
The team is generally looking forward to upcoming competitions. First up is the Central American and Caribbean (CCCAN) champions which should take place in Mexico next July.
