Cayman’s medal haul continues in the pool

By Cayman Sports Buzz
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Updated: 17 April 2017

Sabine Ellison won silver in the 400m IM (photos courtesy CJ Moore)

Cayman Islands swimmers turned in good performances for the second straight day on Sunday, 16 April at the 2017 CARIFTA Swimming Championships in Nassau, Bahamas. After a solid start on Saturday with 13 medals, a dozen more were won on the second day to take Cayman’s tally to 25.

Of the 12 medals won on Sunday, six were gold, five were silver and one was bronze.

Lauren Hew won two golds on day two.

Lauren Hew, who set a new CARIFTA record during the preliminaries of the Girls 15-17 100m backstroke, returned with an impressive swim during the evening session. She took the gold, leading from start to finish and pulled away from the field during the last 50m to win in 1:05.98 just outside the record of 1:05.94 she set earlier in the day.

Hew, 17, was also dominant in the 200m freestyle. She opened up a body length lead after an aggressive start and added to the lead as she headed home to win in 2:05.98.

Afterward, she told Jamaican Olympian Alia Atkinson that the big swim in the 100m backstroke, spurred her on for a big night. “I was definitely happy to get a personal best and break the record, so I think that did motivate me a lot,” Hew said in the television interview.

Avery Lambert won four gold medals on day two.

Avery Lambert, who won two medals on the opening day, had an impressive second day. She won gold in the Girls 11-12 100m backstroke (1:11.63), silvers in the 200m freestyle (2:13.88) and the 400m individual medley (5:28.72).

She then teamed up with Sophie Ellison, Stephanie Royston and Raya Embury-Brown to win gold in the Girls 11-12 400m medley relay, Cayman’s only relay gold on Sunday.

Also winning gold on Sunday was Corey Frederick-Westerborg in the Boys 11-12 200m freestyle (2:08.96). He also won silver in the 50m butterfly in a time of 28.81 seconds, just behind Kadon Williams of Trinidad and Tobago.

Gold was also won for the Cayman Islands by Ali Jackson in the Girls 13-14 200m freestyle. She pulled away from the field at the halfway point and maintained the lead to the end to finish in 2:11.57, nearly a second ahead of her nearest rival.

Corey Frederick-Westerborg is making a name for himself.

A year ago, Jackson was seventh in the event. She spoke about the turnaround: “There was a definite change in my training from just doing sprints to doing more mid-distance and more pace work, so it definitely paid off this year,” Jackson said.

Zachary Moore won silver in the Boys 13-14 200m freestyle in 2:03.95 behind Guadeloupe’s Romeo Boileau, who stormed to the wall in 1:57.82.

Sabine Ellison won a silver in the Girls 13-14 400m individual medley in 5:20.51 behind a strong swim by Danielle Titus of Barbados (5:17.92). Eddie Weber claimed Cayman’s only bronze from Sunday with a swim of 4:49.19 in the Boys 15-17 400m individual medley.

Swimming continues on Monday. CaymanSportsBuzz.com will have continuous updates throughout the championships.

Read other reports from the 2017 CARIFTA Swimming Championships: