Obscured by the excitement surrounding the Cayman swimmers at the 2024 World Aquatics Championships, Sierrah Broadbelt was chopping down records of her own in the United Kingdom.
Broadbelt, 16, wrapped up her season at the annual Winter Championships in Sheffield while fellow Caymanians Kyra Rabess, and Jordan and Jillian Crooks found their own success against the world’s best in Budapest.
For Broadbelt, she too had her hands full at the Ponds Forge Area, where over 1,200 swimmers, including Olympians, world champions and elite athletes, from all over the UK came to compete from 5-8 Dec.
Broadbelt was selected for seven events against tough competition, racing in the 200 metre, 100m and 50m butterfly; 50m and 100m backstroke; and 200m and 100m individual medley.
Of those events, she set national records in the 200m fly, 100m back and in the 100m IM.
“As a six-time finalist, breaking three Cayman Islands senior national records and a 15-17 age group record, it was a very successful meet for me that I’d been working hard for and targeted since the start of the season,” Broadbelt told the Compass.
The rising swimming star finished first in the 200m fly B final with a time of 2:14.27 – a new national record.
In the 100m fly B final, she placed fourth, clocking 1:00.66, before her 50m fly, where she had an impressive showing throughout the prelims that qualified her for the A final against some of the best swimmers in that region. She finished ninth in that race at 27.33 seconds.
For her backstroke events, Broadbelt touched the wall in the B final of the 50m at 28.03, good enough for second, but in the 100m back, she clocked 1:01.54, setting a new national record.
She wasn’t done setting records. Broadbelt then set a Cayman 15-17 age group record in the 200m IM, with a time of 2:20.18, followed by her 100m IM, where she finished in 1:04.66, to set a new national record.
But as soon as Broadbelt finished her events, she turned her focus to watch her countryman Jordan Crooks break through as one of the world’s greatest swimmers.
Broadbelt, who was among the crowd welcoming Crooks home, noted her pride when seeing him compete, which also lit a fire for her.
“Seeing him get a world record and become a second world champion, it gives me so much confidence and belief in myself, knowing that he is from the Cayman Islands just like me,” she said. “It makes me feel like I can do something just like that. It’s really inspiring.”
Broadbelt said she will now turn her focus to long-course training in January as part of preparations for the CARIFTA Swimming Championships – a meet she has dominated in previous years.
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