Cayman’s athletes close out Pan Am Games
(CNS Local Life): Swimmer John Bodden took part in the final event for Cayman at the Pan Am Games, competing in the 1,500m freestyle Saturday, 10 August. While failing to qualify out of his heat, he did record a personal best of 16:16.31, cutting 20 seconds off his previous fastest time. Overall, he finished 16th out of the 18 swimmers in that event.
The day before, Brett Fraser and Lauren Hew ended their Games in Lima, with both competing in the 50m freestyle. Fraser was the top qualifier for the B final after the morning heats, clocking a season-best time of 22.74, just missing the A final by 0.04 seconds. His second swim was a slower 23.42, pushing him to the back of the pack.
He pointed to the climate in Lima as affecting his performance, especially in this last race, but added, “It was good to be in the B final and race against some fast guys and have the experience of getting in the 50 and swimming fast again.”
Though noting that August is basically a “down month for most swimmers”, he said that he will use the time to concentrate on strength training, adding, “with the sprint events that I’ll be focusing on, there’s a lot of attention to detail in and out of the water so I’ll be focusing on that almost immediately.”
Hew missed out of the finals in her event, with a time of 27.13, which was 1.67 off the pace of the top qualifier from the US. Of her races, she said, “It definitely didn’t go as expected. I got sick right before so my races weren’t very good but today was a lot better than the first two days so that’s good. But I’m still excited that I got to experience the Pan Am Games.”
And as for representing the Cayman Islands, she said, “I love swimming for my country, that’s the best honour that you can have. It’s been really fun.”
Sailor Jesse Jackson, who completed his 10 races in the laser standard event, Thursday, noted the difficult conditions of the course at Paracas Bay, which is a four-hour drive south of the main Games venue in Lima. “Overall these Games (were) a big difference in terms of skill level,” he said. “This venue is not one of the easiest venues as it’s either very windy or no wind, so it’s a tough event.”
With a lack of wind forcing the postponement of races on the first two scheduled days, the sailors had to complete 10 races in four days, without the benefit of the originally set rest day. Overall, Jackson tallied 208 points, giving him an overall ranking of 21 out of the 22 sailors competing.
The Pan Am Games closing ceremony took place Sunday evening.
Well that was a giant waste of resources. How many CIOC officials did it take to pull off those second and third rate performances?