Jesse Washington, Emma Harvey, Shannon Hassell, Madelyn Moore and Vanessa Esposito will be the experienced members of an 11-member Bermuda swimming team that will compete at the Carifta Championships in Martinique from March 22 to 26.

The Bermuda Amateur Swimming Association announced the team yesterday, with the five swimmers having 20 appearances between them in the Games, which is in its 31st year. Hassell and Washington, both 16, are making their sixth appearances at the championships, while Moore, 15, is making her fifth appearance as she competes in the older, 15-17 age group for the first time.

Harvey, 14, has been to three previous meets and will again compete in the 13-14 age group, while Esposito, 17, is also in her fourth year.

The team contains five swimmers who are making their debut at the championships — Sam Williamson, Brian Desmond, Logan Watson-Brown, Alyson Scherer and Jessica Bruton — while Jack Harvey is going to his second championships after making his debut last year.

Harvey and Moore brought back six medals each from Barbados last year when the 17-member team won a total of 24 medals, two more than the previous year in Aruba. Harvey was at the younger end of her age group, 13-14, last year and with more experience under her belt will be hoping for more medals when she competes in her main events, the butterfly and individual medley.

“We have a few new swimmers but the core group are medallists over the last few Cariftas and have brought a pretty good haul,” said coach Ben Smith of the team’s expectations this year. “Obviously we’ll still be looking for them to perform and to get the experience for the young guys while they’re there.

“It is a strong team, they’ve been working hard all year, so we’ll be expecting good results even from the young guys. We actually put the standard up, making it harder to get to the meet this year, so to have a team of that size is impressive.

“It means they all went to the challenge. It highlights what we’re able to do in our region.”

Watson-Brown, 12, has shown tremendous promise since switching her focus from gymnastics this year and has already reaped the results. She is looking to get to the finals in her first Carifta, as will her Warwick Academy schoolmates Bruton, 12, Desmond, 12, and Williamson, at 11, the youngest member of the team.

Ashley Irby, Gabriela Pitman and Ethan Daley were selected to compete but are unable to make the trip. The team will leave for Martinique on March 19 and will be accompanied by Smith and fellow national coach Richard Goodwin. Shaun Hassell is the team manager.

Meanwhile, a team of five swimmers from the Cayman Islands will compete in the Schroders Short Course Age Group Championships this weekend at the BASA Pool.

“This is a team just below their Carifta level,” Smith said. “They just wanted to give them an opportunity to go to an overseas competition, so they contacted me and are bringing in a small team.

“It’s great to have another opportunity to have competition from overseas. Otherwise, they end up racing the same people all the time.”

Bermuda’s Carifta swimmers, minus Harvey and Esposito who are in school overseas, will also be in action during the four days of competition, starting tonight, their final preparation before flying out to Martinique next weekend.

“The Daley kids, Ethan, Elan and Elijah, are all flying in [to compete] and they’ve been breaking records every time they get in the water,” Smith added. “There will be lots of opportunities for them to break records. Some of our Carifta athletes will also be looking to set some records, as they are in their final preparation for the championships.

“If the weather continues to be good, we’re hoping to have some fast swims over the weekend, a tune-up opportunity before we travel next Saturday.”

Competition begins today and tomorrow at 6pm, with heats and finals scheduled for Saturday and Sunday.

• For a BASA profile on the squad, click on the PDF link under “Related Media”