CARIFTA 2017

The CARIFTA 2017 Swimming Championships will be held in Nassau, The Bahamas beginning April 15, 2017, and hosted by the Bahamas Swimming Federation.

Historical Overview
The first staging of the Carifta Games took place in Barbados in 1972, the brainchild of Austin Sealy, the then former President of the Olympic Association, and took the form of track and field events open to Caribbean Countries. As time passed the games developed to include other disciplines. The multi-sport concept was developed from 1985 to 1989 when in 1989 a decision was made to resort to a single sport concept after organisation of the former became expensive and difficult to coordinate. The Championships begun with the Countries which signed the agreement of the Caribbean Free Trade Association and the name CARIFTA is the acronym which is now a misnomer since membership has been expanded to include Countries outside of this agreement.

CARIFTA swimming continued on its own from 1989 organised by the Amateur Swimming Associations. Due to the lack of 50 metre facilities in the region CARIFTA ranged from a meet in yards to short course to 50 metre in the early beginnings. During this time a decision was made that the meet should be alternated between Countries in the north and south of the Caribbean. In 1985 the inaugural meet was held in the 20 yard pool at the Ursuline Convent in Barbados thanks to the untiring efforts of Dr Noris Procope.

The Championship was broadened to include the disciplines of water polo and synchronised swimming beginning in the year 2002. Open water swimming was added 2014.

Participating Countries

1.
Antigua & Barbuda
    14.
Haiti
   
2. 
Aruba
    15.
Jamaica
   
3.
Bahamas
    16.
Martinique
   
4.
Barbados
    17.
Netherland Antillies
   
5.
Bermuda
    18.
St. Kitts and Nevis
   
6.
British Virgin Islands
    19.
St. Lucia
  
7.
Cayman Islands
    20.
St. Maarten
 
8.
Curacao
    21.
St. Martin 
 
9.
Dominica
    22.
St. Vincent and The Grenadines    
10.
French Guyana
    23.
Surinam
   
11.
Grenada
    24.
Trinidad and Tobago
   
12.
Guadelope
    25.
Turks and Caicos
   
13.
Guyana
    26.
U.S. Virgin Islands
   

CARIFTA 2017 Documents


April 15th, 2017 9:00am EST