Jillian Crooks broke 15 swimming records, after a 2020 season disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, to lead Cayman’s swimmers in what was a record-breaking year.
Despite a pause in training due to Cayman’s pandemic restrictions, Crooks now holds 30 national and Cayman Islands Aquatic Sports Association records, breaking some of them twice last year.
“I just love swimming,” Crooks said in a CIASA press release.
The 14-year-old’s age-group records span across strokes, including freestyle, backstroke and butterfly.
“Jillian Crooks had a remarkable year in 2020,” said Bailey Weathers, Cayman’s former swimming technical director who is now working remotely in an advisory role.
“When you consider the lack of international competition due to the pandemic, it is remarkable that she was able to set both new short and long course records – a total of 30 CIASA and National records, including records across all strokes, as well as in the IM. I don’t believe we have ever had an athlete set the variety and number of records Jillian did in a single year.”
Cayman’s swimmers in 2020 nearly doubled the number of records set in 2019 despite being out of the pool for nearly four months, according to Weathers.
Seven Mile Swimmers’ 14-year-old James Allison, a relative newcomer to the sport, broke the age-group record in the boys 50-metre butterfly (26:57) previously held by Caymanian Olympian Shaune Fraser.
“2020 was one of my favourite years so far, and the best summer of my life because I had
so much fun,” Allison said in the release. “I met loads of new people, started getting good
at swimming and broke my first record at Nationals – which was nearly a year ago.”
Allison also set new records in the 13-14-year-old boys 50-, 100- and 200-metre freestyle events.
Siblings Lila, Colt and Luke Higgo also set new records in 2020.
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