Rochester hails local water polo programme

Amateur Swimming Association of Jamaica vice-president Lance Rochester remains optimistic of a bright future for Jamaica's water polo programme following success at last weekend's CARIFTA Championships in The Bahamas.

Rochester, who led his charges successfully to gold, silver and bronze medals at the April 7-9 event, called the tournament "an excellent competition", and Jamaica's showing, "excellent exposure for the teams".

"We hadn't been to the CARIFTA Games for a couple years, due to mainly financial reasons, but we are here now, and we are coming back with a gold medal, a silver and bronze," Rochester outlined.

"Overall, it was an excellent tournament, and the players are very excited for the future," added Rochester.

PROUD OF PERFORMANCE

Under-19 boys' team captain Keith Jordon Wilkinson is very proud of their performance.

His team remained undefeated in the tournament, copping gold. They defeated The Bahamas 10-9 in the final, with the hosts coming back to give them a stout challenge for gold.

They previously won all three preliminary games, beating hosts Bahamas 16-13, Barbados 18-7 and Bonaire 17-1.

They outclassed Bonaire 30-2 in their semi-final, before edging The Bahamas for the all important gold.

"We are very excited about winning. We gave our all, and we tried our best and we just thank all the people who came out to support.

"We look forward to going to tournaments in the future, and we hope that we can get some more support," added Wilkinson.

Meanwhile, the Under-19 Girls had to settle for silver in the finals, however, going down to champions Trinidad and Tobago 4-0 in a low-scoring final game.

They beat Barbados twice (11-2 then 17-2 in the semi-finals) to reach the final.

In Under-16 competition Jamaica's boys bounced back from a disappointing start to earn bronze after a nail-biting 7-6 win over Trinidad and Tobago.

They lost two close preliminary games to The Bahamas (10-9) and Barbados (11-10), but managed to beat Bonaire 15-3.