Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace, Alana Dillette, Alicia Lightbourne and Ariel Weech swam to a new BAHAMAS record yesterday evening and first place in the 4 x 100 free relay in Montreal, Canada where they competed at the Canadian Olympic Swimming trials. The women have had their eye on securing a qualification spot for the upcoming London Olympics and are now well on the way. The team swam a new National Record of 3:47.4 and according to the FINA website, as of today they are now in 16th spot for this relay event.
FINA allows only 16 teams to be entered in each relay event and 12 spots are already secured by the top 12 teams who had competed at the Shanghai World Swimming Championships last July. The next four spots will be offered to teams who swim the next four fastest times at FINA sanctioned qualifying events and within the qualification time period. The cut off date for relay qualification is May 31st, 2012.
The BAHAMAS Olympic Committee has supported the BSF and the relay team by providing much needed funding to help the athletes attend and compete at this competition. The team will now consider other London qualifying meets that they may be able to attend and compete in an attempt to lower the relay time and keep there bid alive to compete this summer in London.