The 25th Annual Flowers SeaSwim took place last Saturday June 10th and, for the first time, organisers used a professional electronic timing system to track the results.  The system was powered by Flow who  again was e a Platinum sponsor of the event for a second year. Using Flow’s mobile internet service, swimmers were  tagged at the start of the race and clocked at the check point at the end of the race to provide live accurate results of each swimmer’s performance. Flow Sports, the region’s premier sports network, was also  in Cayman to cover the sea swim, which will be broadcasted across the Caribbean region at a later date to be announced and will be available on Flow TV On Demand.

International swimming body for the Western Hemisphere Union Americana Natacion (UANA), has officially recognised the Flowers SeaSwim for the first time this year and Flowers SeaSwim hosedt a UANA Open Water Swimming Championships series over the same weekend.  Delegations cane from North, South and Central America.  The new timing system is one of the requirements by UANA and is also a Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA) requirement.  US-based company Regatta Timing will provide the timing installation and racing event management software. This includes organising and managing the results of both the Flowers SeaSwim and the Championship Series.  Using a custom designed system, it will push the swimmer results in real-time to Regatta Timing’s website with internet access made possible by Flow’s mobile data network. The company has timed every open-water national for USA Swimming since 2007 (3 Olympic cycles) and the 2010 World Championships.

“We had a fairly simple timing system for the past 24 years. We were using a digital stop clock with a tape printer, and matching the times with finish order data collected by the finish line judges,” said Flowers SeaSwim founder, Frank Flowers Sr. “The introduction of this new timing system definitely raises the bar.  Every year we try to enhance the event, and this new, sophisticated timing system will deliver faster, even more accurate results for our swimmers, and hopefully attract more participants to the beach this weekend.  Thank you to Flow for providing the mobile technology to make this a reality.”

“Flow is pleased to be a part of the Flowers SeaSwim as it celebrates its silver anniversary.  This event has grown from humble beginnings to become one of the World’s Top 13 Open Water Swims, and we congratulate Frank, Dara and the rest of the team on their amazing accomplishment,” said Flow Managing Director Victor Salgado.  “We are thrilled to not only be able to power the new timing system but also capture the excitement of the event and the beauty of our shores for thousands of Flow Sports viewers around the Caribbean, and for posterity. We look forward to working with Frank and Dara to put together a product that will showcase the Flowers SeaSwim and Cayman at its very best. The event coverage will also be available on Flow TV’s video on demand service.”

The Flowers Sea Swim is known as the “richest” open water event in the world, offering over $100,000 in cash and prizes and attracting over 1000 registrants from novices and first-timers to gold medal Olympians and world championship open water specialists.  Flow also  provided Samsung smartphones and tablets as part of the prizes on offer.

For more information for the Flowers Sea Swim, log on to www.flowersseaswim.com.