An emphatic victory on the basketball court and Cayman’s first gold medal were among the highlights of the third day of competition at the 2023 Island Games.
Following defeat at the hands of Menorca in their first game of the tournament the day prior, Cayman’s men’s basketball team unleashed their frustration on the Falkland Islands on Tuesday, winning 131-17 to get back on track in their search for a third successive gold in the competition.
Kwei General-Vanderpuije, the Cayman team’s co-captain, said that unforced turnovers and inefficiency from the free-throw line were among the errors the squad looked to correct from their opening game loss.
“We tried to come out today with a little bit of fire in our belly and a different mindset,” he said, explaining that the team needed to bounce back with a big win to keep pace with Menorca at the top of their group.
Tuesday’s victory, in which the Cayman team limited their opponents to the lowest number of points allowed in any game of the tournament so far, leaves the team third in Group A with a game in hand. Next on the schedule is a showdown with Guernsey, the hosts of these Games who sit one position above Cayman in the group table, on 12 July.
Rabess races to gold medal and (another) national record
Fresh off a relay silver medal during the first session of swimming finals, Kyra Rabess raced to the top of the podium for a gold medal – Cayman’s first in any sport in Guernsey – in the women’s 1500m freestyle on night two in the pool.
Already the owner of the short course metres 400m and 800m freestyle national records, Rabess threw down a huge new personal best time of 17:01.45 to give herself a clean sweep of the distance freestyle national records.
Rabess, who previously set a national record in the long course metres version of this event at the CAC Games a few weeks ago, is also set to contest both the 400m and 800m freestyle events over the coming days in Guernsey.
“Even though I still don’t accept that I’m a distance swimmer, having the national record in the 400, 800 and 1500m is something that I never thought would happen,” Rabess said.
Will Sellars followed up his men’s 1500m freestyle bronze medal from the opening night of action with another bronze, this time in the men’s 400m individual medley.
A time of 4:33.40 in the final of that event is another personal best for Sellars, who is one of several Cayman’s swimmers putting together a strong meet so far.
Meanwhile, though Jake Bailey’s time of 56.49 in the final of the men’s 100m butterfly may have been just eight one hundredths of a second shy of the new personal best he set in the qualifying heats, it was more than enough to earn him a bronze medal that brings Cayman’s medal tally to three on the day and six overall.
The swimming events continue on 12 July, with full results and live video available via the Games’ official website.
Wins in tennis, badminton progress players to next rounds
After continued victories in the early stages of the men’s tennis singles, Berno Devillers and Callum Theaker are through to the quarterfinals on 12 July, where Devillers faces Gotland’s Filip Devallius and Theaker will go head-to-head with Menorca’s Oscar Richard Mesquida Berg.
Ffion Fletcher has also reached the women’s singles quarterfinal stage, where she will take on Shelby Madeiros of Bermuda on 12 July.
In the mixed doubles at the Guernsey Tennis Centre, Ricardo Solon and Abigail Anderson are set to face a duo from the Isle of Man in a semifinal match scheduled for 13 July.
On the badminton court, Claire Hughes swept past competitors from Gotland and Jersey to set up a round of 16 match in the women’s singles event against Orkney’s Jody Groundwater.
Continue to follow all of Cayman’s results across nine sports via the official Island Games website.
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