CAC Games open Thursday in Colombia

The 23rd Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games open Thursday, 19 July in Barranquilla, Colombia. The Cayman Islands will be among more than 30 countries with athletes competing at the multi-sport games that end on 3 April.

The games open with a flag raising ceremony on Thursday 11:45 a.m. at the Athletes Village.

The Cayman Islands will be competing in six sports – athletics, beach volleyball, gymnastics, sailing, and squash. Sailing competition gets underway on the opening day, with gymnastics starting the following day.

Athletes representing the Cayman Islands are:

Athletics – Lacee Barnes, Rasheem Brown, Jeahvon Jackson, Carl Morgan, and Alex Pascal

Beach Volleyball – Casey Santamaria, Nathan Dack, Illeann Powery, and Marissa Harrison

Gymnastics – Raegan Rutty

Sailing – Florence Allan, Alun Davies, Jesse Jackson, Shane McDermott, and Allena Rankine.

Squash – Eilidh Bridgeman, Julian Jervis, Jake Kelly, Jade Pitcairn, Cameron Stafford, and Marlene West.

The Cayman Islands has one 16 medals (five gold, five silver, and six bronze) in the history of the games. Cameron Stafford and Marlene West are looking to repeat as gold medal winners in mixed doubles squash after standing atop the podium at the last games four years ago in Veracruz, Mexico.

Reporter Andrel Harris is Barranquilla. He told CaymanSportsBuzz.com that ahead of the Games, there’s been little atmosphere on the ground to suggest athletes from across Central America and the Caribbean are gathered in the city.

“The Games appear to have been overshadowed by the FIFA World Cup. Now that the World Cup is over, I do not think that the people of Barranquilla actually know that the Games are going on aside from those involved,” he said on the eve of the 19 July-3 August event.

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