Bastian, Morley make ‘B’ cut in swimming; Mako three-peats

It’s been a long time coming but on the final day to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Bahamian and Barracuda Swim Club’s Izaak Bastian was able to make the Olympic ‘B’ standard time in the 100 meters (m) breaststroke. This performance took place at the Bahamas Aquatics Federation’s 49th Rev National Swimming Championships yesterday morning at the Betty Kelly-Kenning National Swim Complex.

In so doing, Bastian broke Dustin Tynes’ five-year-old national record of 1:01.56 in that event, clocking 1:00.87 in the preliminaries. At the four-day meet that began on Thursday, Bahamian and Mako Aquatics Laura Morley lowered her own national record of 2:27.83 in the women’s 200m breast, posting a time of 2:26.91 in the timed finals.

At the meet, Mako Aquatics Club came away with its third straight national swimming championships title. They finished with 2,081.50 points to finish ahead of the Barracuda Swim Club, which scored 1,773 points. Finishing third was the Grand Bahama’s YMCA WaveRunners, which finished with 1,419 points.

Bastian said that he is pleased with his results from the meet.

“I am very happy. It has been a long time coming. I felt like a lot of training paid off at this meet. I am very happy with the results and I know what to fix now going into the rest of the summer and my career,” Bastian said. “I dropped a second from my best time after this morning’s swim. I think one of the main things that helped me was swimming the 50 meters breast yesterday and knowing that I can swim the whole 100 meters like a 50. That is one of my problems. I am always scared to go out and I am not as confident in myself to come back home. This morning, I was like why not, it’s a morning swim, just go out and see what happens. If I die, I can fix it in the night, but I didn’t die as I thought. I went out faster than I thought. It just worked out for me. I came out with a new race strategy to treat it like a 50 and work it out coming home.”

Getting the ‘B’ standard at home was special for him as the younger athletes and his swimming friends were able to see him perform.

“It meant more doing it here,” Bastian said. “It is a home crowd and you have a lot of my friends from growing up swimming here. It meant more doing it here than at some random meet in the United States and then coming home with this time meant a lot. Showing the kids and everybody what I am capable of was a good feeling.”

For Morley, her race was fueled by the home crowd as she was able to swim a strong 100m breast event.

“The 200 meters breast is by no means easy but after talking to my coach, after a few timed trials, we decided on the last one that we are going to take it out and see how it went. I actually went out with my best 100 meters breast ever. That was really awesome, and I just had to hold on for the last two 50 meters. Honestly, I could not have done it without the crowd who carried me through the last 100 meters, so I’m grateful to them. Coming home and seeing everyone and seeing that support in such a tight knit community, I’m thankful,” Morley said.

Both swimmers will have to wait and see if they will make the trip to Tokyo this summer. Morley said since she is home, she will head to the beach to take her mind off of it.

There was one international swimmer who swam and met an Olympic ‘A’ standard. Venezuela’s Alberto Mestre did it in the 50m freestyle timed trial as he clocked 21.93 seconds to go under the 22.01 seconds qualifying time.

Apart from Bastian and Morley, six out-of-town guests swam Olympic ‘B’ cut qualifying times at the meet.

Mako’s head coach Travano McPhee said that he enjoyed this year’s victory and he was glad to see swimming back on track.

“This victory feels a lot sweeter than the first two. Last year, we were not able to three-peat because of COVID-19. We came into this year with a very strong and determined team. We were able to pull off our third straight victory. It was good to see swimming back on track and the swimmers back in their element. They were able to get back into racing again,” McPhee said. “I was very impressed with how the Mako swimmers were able to handle the four days of competition. Most of them were able to accomplish personal best times over the four days. They were able to focus on one day and one race at a time, which enabled them to come away with another victory.”

McPhee said he will give his swimmers a few days off before getting them back in the pool and working on their techniques.

The championships were a great incentive for the junior athletes, especially since CARIFTA has been canceled for a second straight year this year.

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