Successes
Crooks and Broadbelt: CARIFTA’s fastest and most decorated
Caymanian Jillian Crooks swam a blazing 26.08 seconds in the 50-metre freestyle sprint finals at the CARIFTA Aquatic Championships in April – the fastest recorded time by a female swimmer in the sporting event’s 36-year history. Her 50m performance followed her record of 56.44 in the 100m free, where she snatched the longstanding time of 56.77, set in 2008. Crooks, 16, now holds both sprint records for the CARIFTA championships – which hasn’t been done by a 15-17 age group female swimmer in two decades.
Dramatically adding to Cayman’s record-setting CARIFTA championships, swimmer Sierrah Broadbelt won more individual gold medals than any other athlete at this year’s competition. She notched a staggering eight gold medals in Curaçao, also making Broadbelt the top female gold-medal winner in history for the Cayman Islands, surpassing the seven gold medals Kaitlyn Elphinstone collected at the 2000 event.
In addition, Broadbelt, 14, earned the most gold medals among the hundreds of individual male and female competitors at the 2023 championships. She brought home a total of 11 medals – eight gold, one silver and two bronze. Her performance also earned the young swimmer high point honours in the female 13-14 age category with 78 points.
Cayman artistic swimmers splash to historic victory
The Cayman Islands artistic swimmers were crowned champions following three days of aquatic stunts at the Pisina Benny Leito pool in Curacao at the CARIFTA Aquatic Championships.
“They truly gave their best,” Alissa Moberg, head coach of the Cayman synchro programme told the Compass. Their best would secure a milestone achievement, capturing the first high point honour in history for Cayman in any sporting discipline of the CARIFTA franchise.
The 19 local aquatic contortionists secured 10 medals, consisting of three golds, five silvers and two bronzes.
Sprinter Davonte Howell became the first Caymanian male to win gold in the 100-metre dash at the CARIFTA Games.
The winning race, in which Howell beat two Bahamian sprinters in the boys’ under-20 division, marked the first time in 13 years that Cayman has claimed a medal in that event. Howell won with a time of 10.30 seconds in the Bahamas.
Elite SC women complete historic season
Elite Sports Club women’s squad captured every Cayman Islands Football Association trophy while remaining unbeaten for the entire 2022-23 season. It’s the first time in the 57-year history of CIFA that a women’s team captured four titles in a season, without a single loss.
They convincingly captured the FA Cup by dominating Academy SC 8-1 in the finals, after winning both the Presidents Cup and the Charity Shield. In total, Elite won 21 times – three President’s Cup, two FA Cup and 15 league matches, plus the Charity Shield game. They also finished with the most goals in the league at 93, while conceding only seven goals.
Island Games: Basketballers grab silver and bronze
Cayman’s women’s basketball team took to the court one last time at the Island Games on 14 July, emerging with a silver medal after an 89-50 loss in the gold medal match versus defending champions Menorca.
As well as a clear improvement over the team’s fifth-place finish last time out, that silver medal marked a first podium appearance for Cayman Islands women’s basketball on this stage since the country’s bronze medal at the 2003 Island Games.
Heroes’ welcome for Cayman’s Special Olympians
A sense of pride permeated inside the Owen Roberts International Airport as family, friends and supporters staged a heroes’ welcome for Cayman’s 2023 Special Olympics World Games athletes, who brought home 15 medals.
There were cheers and tears as the 16 athletes embraced their loved ones, following their efforts at the mega event which wrapped up on 25 June, in Berlin, Germany.
The athletes competed across a number of disciplines, including athletics, powerlifting and swimming, earned 15 medals, including two golds won by swimmer Kanza Bodden and shot-put thrower Shanike Ebanks.
A dream come true for Molly Kehoe
Since she was a child, Molly Kehoe dreamt of playing professional football under the brightest lights and, after an historic signing, her dream finally came true.
Kehoe, secured a one-season player contract with Cardiff City Bluebirds back in July, the most prominent team, for any local footballer – male or female – in the history of the sport in Cayman.
She has since gone on to score multiple goals and was named Player of the Month for October.
Andrew Stone tops Trinbago 2023
In August, Cayman’s athletes brought home six medals from the Commonwealth Youth Games, as well as set personal best times and national records, in Trinidad and Tobago, but it was Andrew Stone who left everyone speechless following a jaw-dropping jump.
Stone leapt to 7.70 metres to surpass the previous Commonwealth Youth Games record of 7.67 metres, set by Richard Seklorwu of Ghana in 2015. Stone became the first Caymanian ever to win gold in athletics since the first edition of the games in 2000.
Robert Thompson Jr named Mr. America
Caymanian bodybuilder Robert Thompson Jr. couldn’t be denied during the prestigious Mr. America competition – with the seven judges unanimous in scoring him the winner.
With that victory in October, Thompson Jr. became the first non-American to win the so-called ‘One and Only’ professional natural bodybuilding competition since it was inaugurated in 1939, and proved he can pose with some of the world’s elite muscle enthusiasts.
Scandals
Pascal calls it a career after hassles with athletic association
Back in February, one of Cayman’s most promising track-and-field stars hung up his competitive spikes, claiming he could no longer afford to fund his Olympic dreams amid a financing row with government and athletics officials.
Alex Pascal, the island’s national record holder in javelin and a gold medallist at the junior Pan Am Games in 2017, claimed he had not received enough support from the Cayman Islands Athletic Association. He was released from government’s elite athlete programme, which provided him with an annual stipend after an injury-hit season in 2019.
He said his attempts at a comeback had been thwarted by sports administrators who wouldn’t provide even basic funding for a coach or to attend international meets.
CARIFTA official blamed for CIAA, Barnes-Riley spat
The regional governing body of athletics laid the blame for a controversy in April surrounding the coaching credentials of Lacee Barnes-Riley on an official at the CARIFTA Games.
The North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletic Association, in a letter on the public spat between Lacee Barnes-Riley and the Cayman Islands Athletic Association, said neither party was responsible – it was the fault of CARIFTA official Pauline Davis.
After a week of tit-for-tat accusations between CIAA and Barnes-Riley, NACAC general secretary Keith Joseph recounted that on 6 April, accreditation official Kirsti Johnson was holding onto the badges that were printed for Barnes-Riley and her husband, Adrian Riley, pending financial authorisation for their release and pick-up by a team representative – which would have been either Jerry Holness or Cydonie Mothersill.
Sports icons outraged over government supporting UK teams
Following the news, first reported by Cayman Compass [‘Sports figures angry over cash for overseas sponsorships’], that the Cayman Islands government had contributed $500,000 to various sports teams in the United Kingdom, athletes in the community took to social media to voice their indignation.
Well-known local sports figures, like Ronald Forbes and Charles Whittaker shared their disappointment, joining the disapproving chorus by many other sporting persons on island.
Cayman Cycling drops athlete from PanAm Championships over airing dirty laundry
Caymanian cyclist Nathaniel Forbes joined an under-23 international development cycling team based in Portugal weeks after Cayman Islands Cycling Association decided not to include him in the national team at last month’s Pan American Championships.
Cayman Cycling stated that Forbes, a two-time national champion, was not chosen to compete for Cayman in the PanAm Cycling Championships in Panama City as a disciplinary move after the athlete aired over social media internal issues between him and the association.
Football players call for more involvement in CIFA elections
Members of the Cayman Islands Football Players Association told the Compass that members are being excluded from having a say in who leads their parent Cayman Islands Football Association because players in the local clubs were not being consulted on the election process.
Football season in turmoil amid transfer chaos
The opening of the new Cayman Islands Football Association season in October descended into chaos amid confusion over a controversial new transfer policy.
Disgruntled players and coaches claimed the transfer fees and restrictions meant they were “chained to clubs” with no freedom of movement in an amateur league.
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