A team of 90 athletes and officials across nine sports are set to represent the Cayman Islands at the 2023 Island Games.
Taking place 8-14 July in Guernsey, one of the Channel Islands between England and France, this 19th edition of the Games was postponed from 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Historically, the Games has drawn competitors from members of the International Island Games Association (IIGA) around the world every other year since 1985.
Throughout the six days of competition following the opening ceremony on Saturday 8 July, Cayman’s athletes will aim for gold in athletics, badminton, basketball, cycling, golf, swimming, sailing, tennis and table tennis.
Men’s basketball aims to defend its crown
According to Janet Sairsingh, the Cayman Islands Olympic Committee’s (CIOC) Chef de Mission, the largest contingent among those sports is the 31 combined in the men’s and women’s basketball teams.
At the last edition of the Games, in Gibraltar back in 2019, the men’s team went unbeaten from the group stage to the final, emerging as champions after a tense gold medal match against the Estonian island of Saaremaa. This time around, the men’s squad – sporting several players from the victorious 2019 team – will begin its title defence with its first group stage match against Menorca on the opening day of competition the Games, 9 July.
Cayman’s women’s team, who placed fifth overall in Gibraltar, are due to get under way against Jersey that same day.
New-look swim squad set for success
In Gibraltar, Cayman picked up a total of 30 medals (11 gold, 10 silver, nine bronze) to finish eighth out of 22 countries in the final overall medal table.
Nine of those medals came in the swimming pool – a tally that this year’s 12-strong squad of swimmers, headed by Seven Mile Swimmers coach Andrea Ho and Cayman Islands Aquatic Sports Association (CIASA) technical director Jacky Pellerin, will no doubt hope to surpass.
Although only three members of that squad from four years ago – Alison Jackson, Kyra Rabess and Elana Sinclair – will be in Guernsey, Pellerin looks forward to seeing several swimmers make their major national team debut alongside some of the nation’s familiar swimming faces at these Games .
“I’m quite confident about the results because we are excited to go out and swim fast,” Pellerin said, adding that while the competition will be tough, he believes the team can achieve personal best times and return home with some silverware.
From individual races alone, seven different Cayman swimmers are positioned in the top three entries in 14 of the scheduled events. With four men and eight women in the squad, Pellerin and Ho will also have the capacity to enter teams in each of the nine relay events.
“We will have to compete,” Pellerin added. “But let’s go and see what happens – you never know with swimming!”
The swimming events in Guernsey are scheduled to begin Monday July 10.
Squash scratched, but golfers given new stage
Between 12 and 14 sports are contested each year at the Games, with that number dropping to the lower limit in Guernsey. With squash missing from the list of scheduled sports, Cayman’s squash team who brought home six gold medals in 2019 have been left out of the group travelling across the Atlantic.
However, there is reason to celebrate for another group of the island’s athletes. Golf was absent from the 14 sports included at the Games in Gibraltar but has been reinstated this year – meaning local golfers Barry Daly, Payten Wight, Jason Perras, Isabel Mendes and Lauren Needham will travel to Guernsey in search of glory beginning Tuesday July 11.
Island Games Fact Box: Guernsey 2023
- WHERE: Guernsey (Channel Islands)
- WHEN: 8-14 July
- WHO: Around 3,000 athletes from 24 island nations or territories, including:
- Bermuda
- Cayman
- Greenland
- Gilbartar
- Isle of Man
- Jersey
- Menorca
- All islands must have a population >125,000 at the time of application to IIGA
- PREVIOUS GAMES: Gibraltar (2019)
- FUN FACT: This is the third time Guernsey has hosted the Island Games, but the first time in two decades (the island previously hosted in 1987 and 2003).
Related Videos
