John Culatto
STAR swimmer Asia Kent will head a group of young athletes that will represent Gibraltar at this year’s Commonwealth Youth Games on August 4-11 in Trinidad and Tobago.
For the two Gibraltar swimmers and two athletes going over, it will be one of the biggest stages that they will get to compete at in their own disciplines, proving to be a great learning experience.
Gibraltar will be especially rooting for teenage Asia Kent, whose success at last month’s Island Games is proving she can triumph on any stage.
The last Commonwealth Youth Games were held at Nassau in the Bahamas in 2017.
Gibraltar had six athletes at the event but the small nation did not manage to bring any medals home.
Trinidad and Tobago was originally going to host the games on August 1-7 2021.
But the Youth Commonwealth Games organising committee, like other sporting bodies around the world, postponed the event until this year because of the global pandemic.
This year, the team will consist of swimmers Asia and Merrick Kent with their coach Damina Chang Chipolina.
They will be accompanied by athletes Aitana Bado and Katherine Rogers and team general manager Linda Alvarez.
They will leave for the Caribbean island chain’s capital city Port of Spain this coming weekend.
“All four athletes competed in the Guernsey Island Games very recently,” the Gibraltar Government said.
“Asia Kent in particular did extremely well in breaking national records and winning a Gold Medal,” the statement added.
The teenager won the 200m breaststroke in eloquent style, beating her nearest opponent by over four seconds.
She had earlier lost out on silver medal by less than a second in the 100m breaststroke and had to settle for a bronze medal.
Her success was echoed at home where she beat all her rivals to get first place at last year’s endurance swim.
She was also Junior Sports Person of the Year in 2022, and is already being tipped for future greatness.
Commonwealth Gibraltar President Harry Murphy and its secretary general Joe Schembri will be travelling with the team.
They plan to take part in meetings with the Commonwealth Games Federation to talk about how the Australian state of Victoria pulled out as host of the 2026 Commonwealth Games.
The recent shock decision came after the government decided it could not fund the senior sporting event.
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