Cayman athletes of all ages and genders experienced the highs and lows of 2021, from the disappointment brought by the cancellations of major events, to the opportunity to participate at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.
The Cayman Compass is looking back at 2021 and celebrating Cayman’s women, who achieved outstanding results and a place in the history books this year.
Olympic Games first-time trio
Caymanians Shalysa Wray, Jillian Crooks and Raegan Rutty debuted at the Olympic Games, all making history in Tokyo, after receiving invitations from the Olympic Games Tripartite Commission.
Rutty, 19, became Cayman’s first ever gymnast at the Olympics. She finished 80th in the All-Around with a score of 39.615. Individually, she finished the floor exercise in 82nd place, with a score of 10.633. She went on to place 84th in the vault with 12.133, 87th on the uneven bars with a score of 8.566, and 91st on the beam with a score of 8.283.
Crooks, 14, Cayman’s youngest Olympian, clocked in a record-breaking performance, finishing second in her heat of the women’s 100-metre freestyle with a time of 57.32 seconds. The time shatters Crooks’ previous national record of 58.08, which she set earlier this year.
Wray, 22, set a new personal best in the 400-metres, with a time of 53.61 seconds. She became the first woman to compete in that event for the Cayman Islands at the Olympic Games. In November, Wray competed at the 2021 Junior Pan American Games, stopping the clock at 53.47 seconds, to better her time in Tokyo.
Football
Both the senior and under-20 national women’s football teams were undefeated throughout 2021. In July, Cayman’s senior women’s team kicked off their international game play, during the 2021 Women’s Football Festival in Turks and Caicos. During the FIFA friendly tournament, Cayman defeated Bahamas 4-0. They followed that with another win, against the US Virgin Islands in a match that finished 5-0, and then gained another 4-0 clean sheet win over Bahamas to win the trophy.
The U-20 women kept that momentum rolling later in the year, when they advanced in the CONCACAF Women’s Under-20 Championship, after an undefeated run during their group qualifiers in Curaçao.
On the domestic scene, Elite SC women’s team captured all the silverware the Cayman Islands Football Association had to offer for the 2020-21 season. The veteran squad claimed the FA Cup, the CIFA Charity Shield, the CIFA Women’s League and the President’s Cup.
Boxing
Caymanian boxer Brandy Barnes claimed gold at the Celtic Box Cup in Ireland after punching her way through the 105-pound weight class in October.
Barnes, 25, who holds a 6-4 record, stopped her opponent in the third round to become the first Caymanian Senior A Celtic Cup Champion.
Athletics
Caymanian shot-put standout Lacee Barnes threw a distance of 14.7 metres on Friday, 29 Jan. to set a new Cayman Islands national record. A month later, Barnes, 22, threw yet another national record, this time in discus, where she threw 51.52 meters at the Texas A&M Team Invitational.
The five-time CARIFTA Games medallist’s performances made her the only Caymanian in athletics to set two national records in 2021.
Sailing
Charlotte Webster, 17, sailed her way to a second-place finish in her division at the British Nationals Laser Championships, in Weymouth, England at the 2012 Olympic venue, in August.
Artistic Aquatics
Alexandria Owen and Abbie Carnahan made history during the 2021 Junior Pan American Games, by becoming Cayman’s first artistic athletes to compete at a major competition.
Owen and Carnahan competed their technical duet on 2 Dec., receiving a score of 59.3, which positioned them at 15th overall.
Women’s rugby on the rise
In March, more than 100 participants turned out for the Cayman Rugby Union girls’ and women’s camp at the South Sound Rugby Club, as part of Honouring Women’s Month.
Eight months later, Mercedes Foy, Cayman’s new women’s rugby manager, started her campaign to rebuild the sport for women and implemented a women’s rugby training schedule.
The training sessions are held twice a week with about 50 women turning up on a consistent basis. The sport in Cayman has been heavily dominated by men for many years.
However, Foy is hoping to change that, beginning with organising programmes for girls at under 8, under 10, under 13 and under 16 level, as well as starting a domestic women’s rugby league in early 2022.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect that Webster finished second place in her division. An earlier version of this story did not specify that the result was for her division.
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