Fraser brothers swam superbly again and made us proud
From Ron Shillingford
Brett Fraser was seventh in his 100 metres freestyle semi-final at the London Olympics on Tuesday and did not advance to the finals.
His brother Shaune was eighth in the same race. Brett’s time was 48.92 seconds and Shaune’s 49.07.
The swims put the brothers in 15th and 16th place overall in the world, quite an achievement for swimmers from such a small country as the Cayman Islands.
In the heats on Tuesday morning, Brett, 22, swam 48.53 seconds and Shaune 48.99. Brett also reached the 200m freestyle final on Sunday, finishing 14th overall. Shaune was 20th in the 200m free.
Both 100m swims were just outside the Cayman Islands national record which left Brett a little disappointed. “But I gave it my all and I’m pretty happy with my overall performances so far,” he said.
Australia’s James Magnussen, the world champion, was the fastest qualifier for the final in 47.63 seconds.
“I have the 50m freestyle on Thursday morning and I’m just going to put all I have into that.
“I’m happy to have made two semi-finals and hopefully next time I will do even better.
“To have another Caymanian and especially being my brother in the semis with me, is quite a moment to share and as we train together and to have shared our successes and failures together has been great.”
Shaune, 24, said: “The semi-finals were okay but we would have liked to have made it on to the finals but we went out and gave it our best and that is all that we can ask for.
“I was a little faster in the Pan American Games last year but there were a couple of mistakes I made and you cannot afford to do that in the Olympics.
“I’ve decided not to do the 100m butterfly on Thursday because the 100m and 200m free were my best two events which I concentrated on.
“Overall, this has been my best Olympics because I’ve been to two before and never made it to a semi-final and when you make a stamp on the sport that you do it definitely makes the experience more enjoyable.”
**Brett in lane 3, blue shorts. Shaune lane 8 black shorts. Others of Brett in black shorts in his 200m heat
PHOTOS By RON SHILLINGFORD
