Tanja Pereira, parent chaperon for the Canadian-based Mississauga Aquatic Club swim team, heaped praise on the island’s facilities, while rubber stamping Bermuda as an ideal location for winter training.

The 32-member contingent, which included swimmers between the ages of 13 and 18, was scheduled to leave the island yesterday, after completing their final training session of a weeklong training camp at the National Sports Centre, in preparation for provincial and regional tournaments in Canada.

“I would highly recommend Bermuda as a destination for training camps, absolutely,” Pereira said.

“The weather was excellent for training, the training facility here was just absolutely beautiful and we are looking forward to returning,

“We were finally able to organise our two top teams that are Swim Club Junior National and High-Performance programmes consisting of 32 swimmers to come to Bermuda to do an outdoor training camp in preparation for provincials and eastern Canada championships.

“It is the first time here I believe for all the swimmers and we absolutely are begging the coach to come back next year because we loved it so much.

“So the children have absolutely loved it, they find the facility here at the National Sports Centre to be absolutely beautiful and amazing.

“Every individual I have met in Bermuda is energised with kindness and brilliant smiles.

“The children love the food, they love the ocean, just swimming outside and being together as a group has motivated them to train harder, and that they’ll carry these training memories with them in their next competitions and look forward to succeeding.”

Pereira, who highlighted the scale of talent within her group, stated that the swimmers were all extremely pleased with the conditions during their stay.

“We, of course, came from Canada where we had minus-19 degrees temperatures and a big snowstorm. So coming here was welcomed,” she added.

“The children usually in the winter are waking up to snowstorms and here they're rolling out of bed and putting on their shorts.

“So early morning practice has been tiring but they are getting up and doing it.

“We have the junior national team, and one Grade 12 student here.

“They are traditionally a little bit younger and they are training for provincials or Ontario Junior Championships.

“They swim, I think it’s about 12 to 14 times in the week and then the high-performance team is working towards Canadian national qualifying times or, of course, the provincial qualifying times.”