Five Marlins Swim Club swimmers have benefitted from a week of intense training at Davie Nadadores in Florida, USA, home to some top American coaches and potential Olympic athletes.

T&T's 2012 Olympic hopefuls Joshua Romany and Dylan Carter were on the trip, along with national teammates Jonathan Cabral and Jabari Baptiste and another Olympic contender, Guyana's Jessica Stephenson—all of Marlins.

Under the supervision of head coach Alex Pussieldi, as well as Tomas Victoria and Gianluca Alberani, the swimmers underwent strength and conditioning training at the Institute of Human Performance (IHP) at Boca Raton.

This included pushing a 6,000-pound minivan around the Institute's car park and pulling sleds, as well as specialised gym work.

According to Marlins head coach Franz Huggins, this opportunity for the Marlins swimmers will not only open their eyes to the training requirements of those who have achieved more than they have, but will enable them to gain a first-hand perspective on just how close they are to achieving greater levels of success in their sport.

Huggins said: "Nothing that was done this past week was out of their reach. It was simply a new challenge which they readily accepted and duly conquered through discipline and determination."