Biggest ever RHAC Invitational Swim Meet

It will be a record setting 20th Annual Rodney Heights Aquatic Centre (RHAC) Invitational Swim Meet, with close to 400 swimmers here and abroad set to compete in the five day competition from April 11 -14.

Swimmers competing at the RHAC Invitational will come from Antigua, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Martinique, Guadeloupe and of course host country St Lucia. For Managing Director of the RHAC and Meet Director, Diane Worrell, it’s been a labor of love and at the same time a challenge, putting things in place for this competition which continues to benefit our local swimmers, by providing them with opportunities they may not otherwise have.

Why is Worrell devoted, determined, committed and motivated to keep staging this meet year after year? Here’s what she said during a recent exclusive interview: “I think the motivation for me in this competition has been firstly, to allow our home based swimmers to have international competition, without the finances required to travel to do that. That’s how the meet actually began, that in addition to allowing the developing swimmers to have competition in their respective age groups. Without having competitions like this when they are developing, it’s difficult for them to really understand what the rest of the region is doing and what they need to be doing, to reach the level they see other swimmers achieve.”

You may be familiar with the famous quote from the late great Green Bay Packers NFL Football Coach, Vince Lombard, “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.” Worrell does not subscribe to that when it comes to this particular swim meet. The meet is always about swimming your best time,” she said. “It is not about beating somebody in the lane next to you. It’s about coming in and improving your time and that’s all we can ever ask of any athlete is that they improve themselves. If something comes as a result of that then yes, that’s great.”

I mentioned earlier this is a labor of love for Worrell and at the same time challenging. She said: “For some time now I felt our numbers would reach 400 this year but as we approach it, it’s really kind of scary for me to. Even though I’ve done this 19 times and this is the 20th, just to get to that number and officiate a meet here with that number of swimmers is pretty powerful for me, because OECS Swimming Championships does not have than many swimmers. CARIFTA will not have 400 swimmers and those are higher level competitions. So it is going to be a challenge for us as officials to deliver what we need to. That is my foremost thing right now, to plan what our officials have to do to move 400 swimmers through the pool 10 times each.”

The number of officials needed for this swim meet is staggering and depends heavily on volunteers, who willingly give of their time for the love of it. Worrell feels over the years swimming played their part to enhance Sports Tourism and does not receive the credit the sport deserves. She said: “It is unfortunate we are not looked at like some other sports. We are one of those sports where parents support our athletes no matter what country or what island you come from. This is a sport that can lead to scholarships quicker than a lot of other sports.”

She didn’t stop there: “For me I think this meet is going to deliver the highest level of Sports Tourism product that we have, ever, ever, done. The upgrade to the Aquatic Centre for this meet I think is going to be fabulous. We have a lot of plans in place to welcome people. The meet is just not just going to be a swim meet, it is going to be a celebration and a party for four days in the pool and one day on the beach, where people are going to enjoy watching their children swim and the atmosphere that comes along with it.”