Team Cayman finished day one of the 2023 CARIFTA Swimming Championships, turning in a couple of gold medals and several records at the Sentro Deportivo Korsou centre in Curaçao.
Notably, Cayman female swimmers, Lila Higgo, Harper Barrowman, Jillian Crooks and Sierrah Broadbelt, took to the pool on Thursday, 6 April, and completely blew their opposition out of the water.
Higgo, 15, and Crooks, 16, looked unstoppable in the 15-17 age group.
The pair competed in the 50 metre backstroke where Higgo took gold in 29.51 seconds, ahead of Crooks who took silver in 29.65. Their times are the fastest ever recorded at CARIFTA in that event.
The Cayman duo would again claim the two top spots, this time in the 100m butterfly, where Crooks bested Higgo for first in 1:02.67.
“For me, it was about getting into the right attitude and headspace because this is a long meet and I really need to keep a positive attitude through it because it’s going to be hard,” Higgo told the Compass after her race.
She admitted having friendly competition with her fellow countrywoman Crooks adds to the excitement of the race.
“Me and Jillian have been racing since we were like seven years old,” Higgo said. “She is my favourite person to race against and it’s always so good to have friendly competition.”
The pair entered the 4x100m freestyle relay finals together along with Barrowman and Sofia Bonati. Higgo began the race for her team, leaving a trail of swimmers behind her before Crooks extended the lead. Bonati continued on to Barrowman, who closed the show winning gold and setting a new CARIFTA record of 3:57.63.
Prior to anchoring the record winning team, Barrowman won gold in the 800m freestyle. Teammate Broadbelt also claimed two gold medals for Cayman in the 13-14 age group. She won the 50m back and 100m butterfly.
Securing more medals on day one for Cayman was Riley Watson, taking bronze in the 800m free, while Lev Fahy took bronze in the 50m back, clocking 32.09 seconds – a new 11-12 Cayman Islands Aquatic Sports Association record.
Fahy went on to help win silver in the 4×100 free with teammates Gabriel Bispath, Eli Bain and Chase Watson.
Another CIASA record noted on the day was Jordan Lisle’s 2:27.54 seconds, clocked during the 200m breast finals. He placed fourth in that race.
Artistic swimming
Cayman artistic swimmers also walked away with silverware on day one. In the mixed free duet, juniors Dylan Lynee and Azania Osborne won gold, ahead of Cayman’s Reuben Sweetman and Rayne Euvrard who took silver.
For the junior solo free, Allie Graham Capasso walked away with bronze. In the 12-and-under solo free, Nicole Kazakova had a performance that placed her on top of the leader board.
She will need to have another top performance during her figures on Friday, 7 April, to secure gold.
Speaking with the Compass, Kazakova expressed her excitement following the announcement that she was the top performer on the day for her division.
“It’s such a good feeling,” Kazakova said. Noting that she was nervous at first but drew confidence from her team and coaches.
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Well done
It’s such a shame that the whole competition was ruined by the incompetence of the commentator. He didn’t seem to have a clue about his responsibilities. He mixed up the the lane order of the teams at the start and the was reduced to saying during the race which lane number was in front, having no idea of who the swimmers were. As for the finish he invariably got the winner’s name wrong and had to be corrected, What a shambles,compounded by the absence of an electronic noitice board posting the finish places and times for each event.
Thes swimming standards was very high and Cayman held their own with the traditional power houses of Jamaica, Bahamas and Trinidad. The facilities were also top notch so it’s such a shame that the authorities allowed someone to reduce it to a farce.