The Cayman Invitational meet was not just a success from an organisational perspective, it was also a great opportunity to inspire a whole swathe of impressionable children to work hard in whatever career path they eventually choose.
World champion 100 metres sprinter Yohan Blake sizzled down the track to win his event at the Truman Bodden track two weeks ago to a blaze of media attention and so did 400m champs Chris Brown and Novlene Williams-Mills. They and a few more athletes were also brought over not only to compete but to visit school kids and try to encourage them to strive for good educations and generally make the right choices in life. Kim Collins went to George Town and shot putter Dylan Armstrong visited Cayman Brac.
Cayman’s track ace Cydonie Mothersill is the Commonwealth Games champ and is preparing for her fifth consecutive Olympic Games in London in July. She co-ordinated the whole meet and was pleased that the champs as well as other world class athletes made the rounds to all the government schools.
“I’m really pleased that the athletes went to the schools and will continue to do that at next year’s Cayman Invitational,” Mothersill said. “They also held a camp at the Truman Bodden which went really well.
“The school visits were organised by committee member Pearlina McGaw-Lumsden. I believe it was important to have the youths involved in this journey, so other than participating in the meet, we held a track camp as well as having the professional athletes visit the various primary schools.
“I would like to thank all the schools who gave us the platform for these athletes to speak with the students.
“The athletes have had much more successful careers than I have and accomplished more and the kids were super excited to meet undefeated athletes and world champions.
“They wanted to know how they reached that stage and were inspired to go and to do bigger and better things and achieve whatever dreams they have. I also wanted to give back because the Cayman Islands has given me so much.”
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