Cayman’s biggest sporting event of the year did not disappoint with another magnificent staging of the annual Flowers Sea Swim, its 19th. It came a week after Penny Palfrey’s record near-68 mile Bridging the Islands two-day world record and was a perfect finale to months of preparation and promotion for the world’s richest open water swim.
It seemed that the whole island had chipped in somehow to make this event a success with Frank Flowers and daughter Dara Flowers-Burke at the helm. Well over $100,000 in random prizes and cash incentives were on offer but even those who did not win anything got worthy goody bags, plus the fulfilment of being part of a truly wonderful experience.
Premier Mackeeva Bush turned out, with sports minister Mark Scotland, MLA Cline Glidden and a host of head honchos of the corporate sponsors. Some sponsors, like CUC’s Richard Hew even swam the mile course from the Ritz-Carlton to Royal Palms on Saturday with members of his family joining in too.
Over 850 entered and Poppa Frank had the bonus of seeing the course record broken. Chip Peterson took home the US$5,000 prize, beating Alex Mayer’s record of 17 minutes 18 seconds set last year by 12 seconds.
Max Fabian claims he is only a casual open water swimmer yet he was fast enough to come second in 18:03, two seconds ahead of Australia’s Eugene Tee, who also came third in last year’s race. Mun Lee was fifth.
The first female home was the celebrated Eva Fabian, Max’s sister, who is only 17 but already has the look of a veteran, finishing in 18:07 and sixth overall. Second woman finisher was Liliana Costa in eighth place in 18:56 and Isabelle Vandenbroucke was third female and 14th overall in 19:50.
The star-studded field included other Olympic medallists and world champions like Ian Crocker, Gary Hall Snr and his son Gary Hall, Kirsty Kowal, Maritza Correia McClendon and Kaitlin Sadeno.
The Cayman youngsters, used to dominating the early finishers in smaller swims, could only watch in awe as they were beaten out of sight but many, including Geoffrey Butler, Alex and Iain McCallum, Summer and Tori Flowers, Coral Tomascik, Danielle Boothe and Andrew Smilley had their usual strong swims.
All proceeds of this marvellous event went to the Meals on Wheels charity, which was represented by Buela McField, with Kerri Kanuga giving massive support, chiefly by organising an auction at Tiki Beach last Thursday.
The Cancer Society was out in force early, administering sunblock on anyone needing it. The Big Kahuna was an amusing recipient of his sunblock, which took quite a while to apply.
Penny Palfrey, looking a million dollars so quickly after her world record swim which left her totally wasted, was not passed fit enough by doctors to swim but she enjoyed the atmosphere all the same and will surely be back after the reception she has received everywhere she goes in the Cayman Islands.
Premier Bush announced that he used to be a good swimmer and diver, even when he was 370lbs but thankfully he is much lighter now. He has always been fully supportive of Frank Flowers, even 20 years ago when sports minister.
The premier applauded the organisers and everyone involved and joked that Mark Scotland should be made premier when he moves on, simply on the strength of how well he is handling the sports portfolio, plus the fact that these successful events generate so much revenue from sports tourism.
Jim Fraser, dad of Olympians Shaune and Brett, gave a great anecdote about Poppa Frank who built a swimming pool in his back garden years ago even though he couldn’t swim a stroke. “Even one of the Flowers’ famous concrete blocks could float better than Frank,” Fraser said. “But to his credit he learnt to swim very well soon after that.”
Frank, his son Frank Jnr and Dara all found the energy despite their exhausting organising efforts to swim the course, as they always do.
Dara said: “It’s amazing, we’re just ecstatic by the turnout. Over 800 swimmers this year. The support of Cayman residents has been amazing and we’ve got so much international support which is so exciting and continues putting Cayman on the map for open water swimming.
“We had so many Olympians and world champions here. Unfortunately our own Fraser brothers could not attend but hopefully we’ll get them next year to commit. But we were still honoured to have so many top level visitors.
“Although next year it will be a month before the start of the Olympics (9 June) we can still get a number of world class athletes. Maybe not current Olympians but we have so much support from so many Olympians anyway, like Gary Hall Snr who was a great Olympian some years ago, so we’re just honoured to have such great names.
“We were especially honoured to have Penny Palfrey and her husband Chris here. She completed her historic world record swim last weekend, so it’s been a great week for swimming in Cayman.
“Ian Crocker looked like he’d been in serious training and really wanted to win. The whole thing has been really fantastic and we hope to grow it bigger and better next year, the 20th event.”
For full results, go to www.flowersseaswim.com
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For a race based on charity and achievement and bonding together, I was very very disappointed to see officials blow a loud horn at the cut off time and then walk to a man still swimming and ORDER him out of the water in front of the huge crowd that had gathered on the shore. This man was visibly upset and he was not very far from the finish line. it would not have taken him much longer to get to the finish line. When he got to the finish line, he could then have been congratulated and told that unfortunately he did not make it in the allotted time and would not be receiving a medal. He could have still finished the race with no harm to anyone and he would at least have felt the accomplishment of completing the race which he bravely attempted. He would not have been humiliated by being ordered out of the water.
It would have not made any difference to the event had this man been allowed to complete. The formalities and speeches could have gone ahead as planned and it did not have to wait for this man.
My friends and I all felt so gutted to witness this and no one could believe that this brave man who was so close was being ordered out. It is a charity event and this should not have occurred. This is the only thing that will prevent me from taking part in this race next year.
I think this event is great for the Cayman islands. Thank you Flowers family and all of your supporters for making this happen. We all are busy; and I know that Mr. Frank Flowers, his wife, daughter and son have many other events and responsibilities. Thank you for taking the time and providing considerable financial support to make this swim possible.
In 2012 I am planning to bring a whole group of friends and family to do this as our destination swim, The 20th anniversary swim. Hooray!
Who is the young woman in the photo? Congratulations to her for being a top finisher. I would have loved to have seen a photo of Summer Flowers also, as we were friends with her and her family when we lived in Cayman.