From Central American and Caribbean Amateur Swimming Confederation

“From National Development to Senior, Cayman’s swimmers have been making a splash this summer.”

Cayman Islands, 31 August 2015: Summer 2015 was busy for swimmers in the Cayman Islands with swimmers competing at multiple levels overseas – from Club, to National Development to Senior.

In the three years since the Cayman Islands Amateur Swimming Association (CIASA) hired a Technical Director, swimming has seen a surge in popularity at the club and age group levels and this in turn is starting to produce results at a national level. For these improvements to continue it is critical that swimmers take part in all the domestic meets, and also in targeted overseas meets which help them to develop not just in race execution and strategy, but also in their mental approach to competing against the “unknown”.

At the club level there were overseas meets for Camana Bay Aquatic Club (CBAC) and for Stingray Swim Club (SSC). These meets are important for swimmers, providing them with a “goal” to work towards – and keeping the athletes training and fit throughout the summer months. CBAC attended the Sarasota Sharks Open, June 25-28th; SSC attended the Georgia Tech Invitational (July 23rd-26th) and those swimmers with meet qualifying times attended the Dolfin Summer Senior Beach Blast Championship, July 29th-August 1st.

National Development Representative Team

Cayman’s successful club programmes feed up to the national programmes and the development of swimmers who will represent the Cayman Islands internationally. With this in mind CIASA was pleased to invite and assist swimmers in the National Development Representative Team to attend a 4-day camp at Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers, Florida. This is the first time that a Development Representative Team camp has taken place, and the ten swimmers who attended, ranging from 9-15 years old all had a remarkable experience.

Swimmers had an opportunity to work with Coach Studd, a 2012 Head Olympic Coach – National Coach of the Year – Honorable Mention (swimswam.com). Coach Studd has been running swim camps for over a decade, instilling a winning tradition to competitive swimmers. Coach Studd has a philosophy of positive reinforcement, proper stroke technique, and challenging training.

Over the past season, members of the Representative Team have worked hard both in the pool and out. Members are required to meet certain swim time standards, assist with various team activities including fund raising and demonstrate and promote good citizenship and sportsmanship.

Overall, whilst the camp’s main focus was swimming, the camp experience provided the swimmers with an opportunity to understand what it would be like to attend university. They lived on the university campus in dorms and attended all activities on campus. One young swimmer who took part, Samantha Rowland (CBAC) has this to say: “The camp was an amazing experience and I was so grateful for having the opportunity to come to the FGCU camp. We had amazing coaches who were very experienced, we met a few high level swimmers and we got to get a feel for the school as we stayed on campus! Overall, the camp taught me so many new skills and gave me some amazing memories.”

Island Games 2015

The Cayman Islands fielded a strong Island Games swim team with athletes from our Junior, Senior and Elite ranks taking to the blocks in Jersey.

With Olympians Shaune and Brett Fraser leading the team spirits were high and success in the pool translated in to podium finishes for several of our athletes. Making their first appearance at the Island Games were Ella Plunkett (SSC), Lauren Hew (CBAC), Jonathan Key (SSC), Iain McCallum (SSC), Rory Barrett (CBAC) and Eddie Weber (CBAC). These six swimmers have all represented the Cayman Islands at CARIFTA in the past. CIASA President Michael Lockwood had this to say about the team’s success at the Island Games: “the professionalism and hard work of our clubs and coaches, combined with a focused and deliberate national swim programme led by Technical Director Bailey Weathers, are providing Cayman Swimming with the layered progression necessary to develop our swimmers in to the world class athletes they want to be.”

2015 Special Olympic World Summer Games

Special Olympics Cayman Islands (SOCI) swimmers made their presence known in LA this summer, returning home with multiple medals and amazing memories and experiences. Coaches Penny McDowall, Ryan Mushin and Lois Moody worked closely with their swimmers, preparing them for competition and as with all things, preparation translated in to success. Personal Bests (PBs), medal and smiles for all our swimmers who were led by pool and open water veteran Andrew Smilley (SSC).

2015 Pan American Games

The 2015 Pan American Games were attended by Lara Butler (SSC) and Brett Fraser and also saw CIASA Referee Adam Roberts officiating as a Referee. Both Lara and Brett swam well in Toronto and they, along with Referee Roberts represented the Cayman Islands with pride.

2015 FINA World Championships

Taking place in Kazan, Russia a small team from Cayman of Geoffrey Butler (SSC), Lara Butler (SSC) and Lauren Hew (CBAC) – who had all warmed up at the Island Games – took part in an exciting meet which exposed them to some of the world’s best swimmers.

The experience to be gained from taking part in international meets such as this cannot be replicated or reproduced in any other settings. Cayman’s team put in great performances in the pool, witnessed amazing swims in the Finals sessions and were able to meet and talk to swimmers – such as Jamaica’s own Alia Atkinson – who are the top of their game in the athletes’ village.

“I am delighted with this past year of swimming and particularly with the strengthened programme of summer swimming that our athletes have benefitted from,” said Lockwood. “We have seen new National and CIASA records set; our participation at CARIFTA this year was strong and our competitiveness and experience gained throughout the summer have been tremendous for our athletes. In September Catriona MacRae (SSC) and Lauren Hew (CBAC) will join 16 other athletes at the Samoa 2015 V Commonwealth Youth Games from September 7th – 11th. We wish Catriona and Lauren all the best in Samoa and look forwarding to another exciting year of swimming.”

The swimmers must all be congratulated on their personal, team and national achievements. These successes would be harder to come by without the support of sponsors such as Maples, Dart, Davenport Development and the Cayman Islands Government and the ultimate sponsors … their parents. Congratulations all.

The Cayman Islands Amateur Swimming Association (CIASA) is a volunteer, not for profit association dedicated to furthering the interests of all aquatic sports in the Cayman Islands. CIASA is the recognised Governing Body of aquatic sports in the Cayman Islands and is a member of FINA, UANA, CCCAN and the CIOC. For more information on CIASA please visit www.ciasa.ky

SOURCE: http://www.cccan.info/NewsShow.jsp?&id=436558&team=cccan