Caymanian swimmer Harper Barrowman seized her opportunity to become a Commonwealth Games finalist after swimming 9:16.49 in her 800-metre freestyle heat on Monday, 1 Aug.
Barrowman’s time, which also marked a new personal best, made her the first female from the Cayman Islands to ever qualify for a Commonwealth Games final in the pool.
“It was a great race,” Barrowman said. “To be able to do something like that at a level like this, it is just an amazing opportunity.”
Amongst the active long-distance swimmers from Cayman, Barrowman, at just 16 years old, is considered to be the top female, with the exception of Kyra Rabess.
Her coach, Darren Mew, head coach of Seven Mile Swimmers, was emotional after his athlete completed her race. He said all of Barrowman’s hard work in training is paying off.
“Harper works so hard, day in and day out, she has never missed a session and she does everything right,” Mew said. “She dropped seven seconds off her best time to make her first major finals and it’s totally deserved and I couldn’t be happier.”
The 800m finals will be held on Tuesday, 2 Aug., and while Cayman Olympian Heather Roffey’s national record of 9:01.41 remains intact, Barrowman is hoping to close the gap when she competes again.
Also hitting the pool for Cayman on 1 Aug. were Rabess, Sierrah Broadbelt, Raya Embury-Brown and James Allison, none of whom qualified for the next round in their events.
Rabess and Broadbelt both competed in the 100m freestyle event, swimming in separate heats. Broadbelt clocked a personal best of 1:00.82, while Rabess finished at 59.29.
Embury-Brown swam heat one of the 800m in a time of 9:30.75 and Allison competed in the 100m butterfly heat three, and finished at 59.21 seconds.
Related Videos
