Thursday, September 10 2009

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THE Amateur Swimming Association of Trinidad and Tobago (ASATT) has banned all hi-tech suits from local competitions as the decision by the International Swimming Federation (FINA) to ban the suits ripples to other parts of the world.

The ASATT Council made the ruling this week but it will come into effect from October 1 this year.

FINA, the world’s governing body for aquatic sports has been campaigning for quite some time to ban the hi-tech suits which have been creating quite a storm over the past two years with critics referring to it as “technological doping”.

FINA has decided that all hi-tech suits will be banned effective from January 1, 2010 with only suits made from “textiles” being eligible to use.

With more than 100 world records being broken in the past two years, FINA has finally clamped down on the suits and the ASATT Council believes that since swimmers would not be able to race in these suits internationally next year, then they should not be able to use them to qualify for the Carifta Games or the Caribbean Island Swimming Champion-ships (CISC) that begin in October.

Meanwhile, the Tidal Wave Aquatics 9th annual Secondary Schools Swim Meet gets underway on November 8 at the Centre of Excellence Swimming Complex, Macoya.

The ASATT Maracas Open Water Classic will take off on September 20 with Maracas Bay with competitors from the USA and the Caribbean competing in several categories.