Sea swim sails to exciting finish
Participants at the Butterfield 800m Sea Swim
(CNS): More than 120 people took the plunge for the 13th Annual Butterfield 800m Sea Swim 30 May, with university student Geoffrey Butler coming home for the summer in time to win in a tight finish. Catrionae MacRae of the Stingray Swim Club (SSC) took top honours among female competitors.
Iain McCallum (SSC) was second overall, just .01 behind Butler’s 9:48 finish, followed by Eddie Weber of Camana Bay Aquatic Club (CBAC) at 9:51. Among the women, MacRae at 10:55 was ahead of Holly Stradling (CBAC) at 11:29, and Audrey Weber (CBAC) with 11:33.
A number of Special Olympics Cayman Islands (SOCI) athletes, who are travelling to Los Angeles for the 14th Special Olympics World Summer Games, also participated, using the swim as part of their pre-competition training. Finishing 9th overall was Andrew Smilley (SSC) in a time of 10:45; Keanu McKenzie (SSC) was the second SOCI swimmer home at 16:46; and Kathryn Kleinworth (SSC) crossed third for SOCI in 18:57. Hamish Wood and Kanza Bodden also had strong finishes.
Coach Ryan Mushin, who is travelling to Los Angeles with the swim team, said of the SOCI swimmers: “The Cayman Special Olympics swimmers are really stepping up their swimming as they approach the 2015 World Games. They all have been training extremely hard and it showed on Saturday at the Butterfield 800m Swim. I am very proud of all the athletes and what they have accomplished. I am super excited to see how they do in in LA at the World Games.”
The Cayman Islands Amateur Swimming Association (CIASA) stages and hosts a number of 800m open-water events throughout the year, providing competitive swimmers, tri-athletes and casual swimmers, who just want to stay fit, a safe, organised and properly officiated course.
CIASA president Michael Lockwood, a swimmer himself, thanked Butterfield for its continued support of Cayman swimming, and added: “Swimming is a great way to stay fit. It is also a life skill that CIASA firmly believes everybody should have. There are a variety of swim schools which offer learn-to-swim classes, not just for children but also for adults, and I encourage anyone that can’t swim to sign up and take that first plunge into the water.”
Full results are available at CIASA.
