Swimmers dominate open water at CARIFTA
(CNS Local Life): Despite participating in four days of pool events at the CARIFTA Aquatics Championships in Barbados, a group of Cayman’s swimmers took to the sea Wednesday (24 April) to compete in open water and dominated the 5K races, adding three final gold medals to their record haul.
Stephen Broadbelt, Cayman Islands Aquatic Sports Association director, said the swimmers were successful because they pulled “from their experience with the Cayman-based sea swims throughout the year”.
In taking gold in the men’s 16-18 age group, Jake Bailey also posted the fastest time overall in the open-water events, clocking 1.03.46 in his 5K.
Avery Lambert earned gold in the women’s 14-15 group in a time of 1:07.11, just seven hundredths of a second ahead of the second-place finisher from Trinidad and Tobago, with bronze medallist Raya Embury-Brown only six hundredths of a second away from silver.
In the women’s 16-18 category, Elana Sinclair took joint gold with her Curacao opponent, both posting times of 1:07.10, with the bronze medallist from Trinidad also only six hundredths of a second behind.
Stefano Bonati finished with a silver in the men’s 14-15 group in 1:04.47, an agonisingly close two hundredths of a second off the gold-medal time of the swimmer from host country Barbados.
Broadbelt said the strong showing in those races “keep Cayman as the team to beat in the ocean”.
All the more reason they don’t need a big hole in the ground to throw money in to.