Four Virgin Islands Olympians to Compete in Tokyo Games. Here are the Days and Times.

  • Kyle Murphy
  • July 24, 2021
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The Virgin Islands Islands flag was carried by Adriel Sanes and Natalia Kuipers during the Opening Ceremony for the Olympics in Tokyo on Friday, marking the official start of the event after a yearlong, Covid-induced postponement. There will be four representatives in the Virgin Islands delegation competing in the games in the upcoming days.  

Virgin Islands archer Nicholas D’Amour was the first representative of the territory to start his Olympic effort by placing 23 in the seeding round of his event. The event moves to a 64-person single elimination round where D’Amour will take on Ryan Tyack of Australia on Wednesday, July 28th at 11:06 p.m. The round of 32 will take place later on the same day.

The round of 16 will begin at 10:30 p.m. on Friday, July 30, the quarterfinals will begin at 1:45 a.m. Saturday July 31, with the semifinals following at 2:45 a.m. and the finals taking place at 3:45 a.m. the same early morning.

According to a Facebook post by the Virgin Islands Olympic Committee, D’Amour is the ninth ranked archer in the world for the men's Olympic recurve, the event he will be competing in. The post also states that Archery was first recognized in the Virgin Islands as an Olympic sport in 2014 and D’Amour is the the first representative from the territory to compete in the event.

Sanes will compete in both the 100 meter and 200 meter breaststroke events. The preliminary round for the 100 meter breaststroke is Saturday July 24 and he will be competing in the second heat at 7:27 a.m. The semifinals for that event will be later that night at 10:33 p.m. with the finals taking place on Sunday July 25 at 10:12 p.m. 

The first round of the 200 meter breaststroke is on Tuesday July 27 and Sanes will be swimming in Heat 2 at 6:39 a.m. The semifinals will be on the night of the 27th at 10:21 p.m. and the finals will be on Wednesday July 29 at 9:44 p.m.

The best of 16 in the first round of both Sanes events will advance to the semifinals. 

According to Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA), which translates to International Swimming Federation, Sanes Personal best in the 100 meter breaststroke is 01:01.87. In the 200 meter breaststroke his personal best is 02:12.59. 

Sanes previously competed collegiately at the University of Denver and will continue swimming at Auburn University as he pursues his master’s degree in engineering management-manufacturing, according to his Twitter account.

On Sunday, Kuipers will swim in the first heat of the Women’s 400m freestyle at 7:06 a.m. Kuipers is the current Virgin Islands record holder in that event. Her best time in the event is 4:35.11, according to FINA.  

The top 8 finishers from the four heats will advance to the final on Sunday night at 10:20 p.m.  

Kuipers swims collegiately at Bryant University. 

The last Virgin Islander to compete in the games is Eddie Lovett, a 110 meter hurdler. His event is scheduled to begin on Tuesday August 3. 

The event had not assigned which athletes will be in each heat at the time of writing, but the 110m Round 1 will have five heats starting at 6:10 a.m. , 6:18 a.m. , 6:26 a.m., 6:34 a.m. and 6:42 a.m. There will be three semifinals on the night Tuesday, Aug. 3 beginning at 10:00 p.m. The finals will take place on Wednesday, August 4 at 10:55 p.m.  

Lovett represented the USVI in the 2016 Rio Games and his personal best in the 110 meter hurdle is 13.14 seconds, according to World Athletics.org. He competed for Florida University in college. 

Here's a blurb from the NBC Sports website, “NBC is home to the Olympics – Check you local listings here – while USA, CNBC, NBCSN, Olympic Channel: Home of Team USA and GOLF Channel will also air coverage of the Tokyo Games. You can also watch events streaming on NBCOlympics.com , the NBC Sports app and Peacock."

Note: all times are listed in Atlantic Standard Time.

 

 

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