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By Neto Baptiste
The Ministry of Sports and the governing body for swimming, the Antigua and Barbuda Swimming Federation (ABSF), have agreed on the way forward regarding the proposed aquatic centre to be erected at Tomlinson.
Minister for Education, Sport and Creative Industries, Daryll Matthew, said the new arrangement will see a scaled-down version of the proposed facility being erected at Tomlinson’s while the government will move forward in their partnership with The University of the West Indies (UWI) Five Islands Campus, that will see the building of an international swimming facility as part of the university’s buildout.
“First of all, we agreed on the location of the facility. The Swimming Federation has agreed that the Five Islands Campus is, in fact, perhaps the best place for an internationally certified aquatic centre, given the construction costs, the maintenance costs, and so forth. In fact, the estimate that we received for some of the work, not even the entire project, from the international contractors that were brought forward by the federation, was about two point something million U.S. I can show it to you because it’s public information and it was felt that we could be better served and our resources could be better put to use if that facility is built out at the Five Islands Campus, which it is already earmarked to be done as a part of the university build-out,” he said.
Matthew, speaking on the Good Morning Jojo Sports Show, revealed that the facility to be built at Tomlinson’s will feature two 25-meters pool instead of the originally agreed 50-meters pool and will be primarily used for training and some local competitions.
“We agreed that there’s need for a separate facility that can facilitate localised competitions, training opportunities for different clubs and so on and the Tomlinson’s facility is what is going to be built out for that purpose. The Tomlinson’s facility that we broke ground on – we agreed between the Swimming Federation and the government – that facility really ought to be a practice facility, a training facility that can be used for localized competitions as well,” he said.
The minister went on to add that the UWI campus will boast at least three sporting facilities built to international standards, which will all be available for use to the relevant associations here in Antigua.
“There’s an indoor multi-sports facility, a track and field facility, and an aquatic centre, all of which are built into the master plan of the university so it removes the heavy capital requirement that government would be expected to carry, and places it as a part of the build-up that we’re doing now. However, we still need a YASCO, we still need a facility where persons can come and train, and we can have our Inter-school competitions and other activities,” Matthew said.
“We can still do those things so it’s not that you will do away with YASCO and go Five Islands. No, that is not sensible, practical, or even reasonable. We still need to maintain YACSO at a particular level, much like this swimming facility now that we are looking at. The Swimming Federation is to get back to me with budgets and some of the aspects that they would like to see in this more localised facility,” he added.
In December of 2022, government broke ground at the site for the proposed aquatic centre that would have originally housed a 25-meter pool, dressing rooms, stands and other amenities. The federation, under the leadership of Edith Clashing, who was elected in March of 2023, renegotiated for a 50-meter pool and a 25-meter warm-up pool.
The start of the project was however delayed after the Swimming Federation requested that a company outside of Antigua consult on the project which would have cost the government US$16,000. Although Matthew did not shut down the request, the government said the Federation would be responsible for the consultation fees, which never materialized.
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