A team of seven Cayman Islands’ athletes across four different sports is preparing to impress at the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile.
The event, scheduled to take place from 21 Oct.-5 Nov., will feature local competitors in aquatics, athletics, sailing and golf.
Rasheem Brown will be the sole track-and-field representative, competing in the 110 metre hurdles, while Charlotte Webster will hit the sea for sailing and Justin Hastings will be on the links for golf.
Swimmers James Allison, Sierrah Broadbelt, Harper Barrowman and Kyra Rabess will be vying for medals in the pool.
Steve Broadbelt, president of the Cayman Islands Aquatic Sports Association, told the Compass that he expects positive results from the swimmers as they compete against some of the best athletes in the world.
“The expectation is for them to focus on their own performance, improve on their rankings and try to get personal best times,” Broadbelt said.
Freestyle swimmers Allison, Barrowman and University of Northern Colorado’s standout freshman Rabess will among themselves compete in a range of distances – 50m, 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m and 1,500m.
Sierrah Broadbelt, who is coming off a spectacular debut for her school, Mount Kelly, will focus on her bread-and-butter events – the butterfly and individual medley. She will swim the 200m fly, and the 200m and 400m IM.
“This is a higher level meet,” Steve Broadbelt said about the PanAm Games, which also serve as an Olympic qualifier.
“They are going to be competing against top 10 athletes in the world. So, this is a good way to build some experience in the long course and will set them up for bigger meets,” he added, noting that local swimmers don’t get a lot of opportunities to compete in a 50m pool.
“They are top swimmers in the region, not just Cayman,” he added. “So this is a good team that we are sending. They just need to keep pushing and keep swimming. We will keep supporting them and their positive improvements.”
Meanwhile, amateur boxer Jaden Eccleston, who has fought to an 8-2 record and will be competing under the Jamaican flag, told the Compass earlier this week that, in his heart, he will be representing Cayman as well.
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