By Cayman Compass contributor Alex Dakers
Cayman Islands swimmers made more history on the international stage last month, with the country sending its largest-ever team to the renowned Mare Nostrum Swim Tour.
The prestigious competition, which began in 1994, is held annually with a series of stops around the Mediterranean Sea at the start of the sport’s summer calendar. It offers athletes a chance to fine-tune their racing strategies in long-course metres pools while competing for a share of a total prize pot worth €138,600 (CI$134,525).
The tour has attracted scores of elite swimming talent over the years, from Olympic medallists to world record holders and more. At the 2026 edition – held between Monaco, Canet-en-Roussillon, France and Barcelona from 23 to 31 May – nine Cayman swimmers competed: Sierrah Broadbelt, Riley Watson, Lila Higgo, Eva Oldfield, Dominic Hilton, Connor Macdonald, Danny Kish, Lev Fahy and Lennox Turnham-Wheatley.
The group, helmed by coaches Jacky Pellerin, the technical director of Cayman Aquatics, and Darren Mew, raced for two days at each of their three stops, getting off to a strong start at leg one in Monaco from 23 to 24 May, with multiple new best times achieved. Two of those were earned by Kish, the Brighton College student, who shaved just under a tenth of a second off his entry time in the men’s 50-metre butterfly before later dropping over half a second to win his 50-metre freestyle heat.
Among the others joining on the action at the tour’s first stop was versatile young distance-swimming star Turnham-Wheatley, who snuck under his entry time in the men’s 400m freestyle, while Sierrah Broadbelt and Riley Watson both progressed to the B-final of the women’s 200m backstroke.
Broadbelt did so again in the same event at leg two in Canet from the 27 to 28 May, while Kish continued his excellent tour form by cutting several tenths of a second off his 100-metre freestyle entry time.
Meanwhile, highlights from the final leg in Barcelona held from 30 to 31 May, included Macdonald and Hilton combatting the effects of fatigue by continuing their streak of improving their times across all three stops in the 400-metre freestyle and 400-metre individual medley, respectively.
Many more of Cayman’s swimmers, such as Fahy, turned in performances just shy of their lifetime best across the week despite not being fully rested. The 16-year-old Bolles School student told the Cayman Compass he is currently in a heavy phase of training to gear up for a busy summer ahead, having achieved selection times for US junior national championships – held this August – earlier in May.
He is also preparing for the official NCAA college swimming recruitment window to begin in mid-June. Fahy said Mare Nostrum provided a “really good experience” and opportunity to “see what the future can look like at that level”.
He added, “The focus right now is more on racing experience rather than times. It was valuable to race some of the best swimmers in the world and learn from that environment.”
While Fahy resumes training with a focus on his upcoming competitions in the United States, and others like Turnham-Wheatley and Oldfield return to their local clubs in Cayman, five of Cayman’s representatives at Mare Nostrum will now turn their attention to the 2026 Commonwealth Games.
Broadbelt, Kish, Macdonald, Higgo – plus her younger brother, Luke, who accompanied the team to Europe but did not compete – and Watson will head to Glasgow, Scotland, for the multi-sport event in July following a pre-competition training camp at the University of Bath, where they will be joined by the rest of the 12-strong Cayman swimming contingent for the Games.
Alex Dakers is a London-based journalist who was born and raised in the Cayman Islands.
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