Cayman Islands athletes returned home on 21 April after setting several records and claiming 61 podium places at the CARIFTA Swimming Championships and CARIFTA Track and Field Games.
Swimming
Cayman earned 57 medals over the five days of competition, held 16-20 April, in Christ Church, Barbados, the most hardware ever won by the national team.
Day 1
For the 800-metre freestyle races, Lola Haworth took gold in the 13-14 division and Kyra Rabess claimed the top spot in the 15-17 division, ahead of Harper Barrowman, who won bronze.
In the 200m breaststroke, Coco McGrath won gold in the 11-12 division, Dominic Hilton took silver in 13-14 and Kaitlyn Sullivan earned silver in the 15-17 division.
In the 50m backstroke, siblings Luke and Lila Higgo won gold medals in their respective divisions.
Caymanian top swimmer Jillian Crooks delivered a gold in the 15-17 division of that event.
Higgo captured her second gold medal on the day, winning the 13-14 100m butterfly, with teammate Sierrah Broadbelt taking silver, giving Cayman the two top spots for that race.
Crooks later claimed her second medal, this time a silver in the 100m fly.
For the 13-14 4×100 free relay, Broadbelt, Brianna Fischetti, Sofia Bonati and Higgo won silver for Cayman and in the 15-17 division, Barrowman, Rabess, Kathryn Lambert-Wragg, and Crooks also won silver.
Day 2
In the 200m free Rabess won gold ahead of Crooks, who took second. James Allison earned silver in the boys 15-17 division.
In the 100m backstroke, the Higgo siblings delivered yet again with both winning gold,and Lila setting a new CARIFTA record. She hit the wall at 1:04.69 to break the previous record of 1:05.61, set in 2017. Lev Fahy also won a bronze in Luke Higgo’s gold medal-winning race. Crooks took gold for the 15-17 backstroke.
During the 400m individual medleys, Teagan Nash, Hilton, McGrath, and Harper Barrowman earned silver medals in their respective age groups.
In the 4x100m medley, Riley Watson, Eva Oldfield, Kassandra Adapa and McGrath secured a bronze in the 11-12 division. Lila Higgo, Fischetti, Broadbelt and Bonati hit the pool as a team again, this time swimming to a gold medal in the 13-14 division. In the 15-17 division, Barrowman, Sullivan, Rabess and Crooks took silver.
Day 3
In the 4×200 freestyle relay, Bonati, Broadbelt, Nash and Lila Higgo won silver. That was followed by a record-breaking performance by Barrowman, Lambert-Wragg, Crooks, and Rabess. They shattered the 15-17 division CARIFTA record by 3.52 seconds after clocking 8:42.17 for first place.
Allison, Stefano Bonati, Corey Frederick-Westerborg, and Will Sellars took bronze in the 15-17 race.
In the 1,500m free, Haworth won gold in the 13-14 division, while Barrowman and Veronika Fankina won silver and bronze, respectively, in the 15-17 division.
In the 100m free, Crooks and Lila Higgo both claimed gold in their respective finals.
Higgo and Broadbelt went first and second in the 200m individual medley.
In the 50m breaststroke, McGrath won gold while Azania Osborne grabbed bronze in the 11-12.
In the 200m fly, Rabess won silver. Broadbelt secured a gold while Nash claimed bronze and Luke Higgo took silver in his division.
Day 4
In the 400m free, Rabess continued to rack up gold medals at CARIFTA, ahead of silver medallist Barrowman.
Crooks earned herself another gold medal in the 200m backstroke event, while Lila Higgo also took gold and a new CARIFTA record in her division. Luke Higgo and Watson collected silver in their respective 200m backstroke events.
In the 100m breaststroke, McGrath won gold. Cayman took bronze in the 50m free relays in the 11-12 and 15-17 divisions.
Day 5 (open water)
Cayman swimmers closed out their 2022 CARIFTA chapter on 20 April, competing in the open-water events.
Over 30 swimmers from across the region competed in the gruelling 5K open-water course. In the 16-18 division, Caymanian swimmer Rabess powered her way to yet another gold medal.
Teammate Haworth secured Cayman’s second gold for that event in the 14-15 division, followed by Nash who claimed silver. For the boys 16-18 division, Connor MacDonald secured a bronze medal.
Track and field
The 2022 CARIFTA Track and Field Games were held in Kingston, Jamaica.
“It was a successful meet overall considering COVID and no international exposure for most of our athletes,” Cayman’s athletics national head coach Kenrick Williams told the Cayman Compass.
Andrew Stone’s leap of 6.76 metres was enough to win him a gold in the under-17 long jump. Stone then followed with anther medal, claiming a silver in high jump.
“He has tremendous abilities,” Williams said of Stone.
Cayman also medalled in the under 17 and under 20 4×100 metres relay races, earning bronze in both events. The U17 team consisted of Rashawn Robinson, Jacob Ebanks, Ty Goddard and Jerrell Maize while the U20 team featured Jaiden Reid, Davonte Howell, Alex Gordon and Jamar Ellis
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You neglected to mention the Cayman swim team finished top of the gold medal table with25 golds, beating Barbados with 22 into second place and Jamaica who dominated track and field, into third place with 17.. Time our Minister of Sports went down to our 25 meter pool which has stood for decades and looked at the plans for the much needed Olympic standard 50 meter pool which our swimmers truly deserve. Over the years they have consistently far outperformed our track athletes who have the benefit of an Olympic standard stadium.