Hew into 50m freestyle semi-finals

Lauren Hew qualified for the semi-finals of the women’s 50m freestyle, becoming the first Cayman Islands athlete to advance beyond the preliminaries at the XXI Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia.

Hew was sixth in her heat in 26.59 sec on 6 April (5 April in the Cayman Islands) at the Optus Aquatic Centre. This time was 15th quickest of 40 competitors.

“It was really fun. The crowd is huge and noisy, kind of intimidating but it was a lot of fun,” Hew told CaymanSportsBuzz.com after the race, adding that she was able to feed off the energy of the crowd which roared to life in support of Australian swimmers.

With the top 16 moving on to the next round, she’s on to the semis later in the day. The race is scheduled for 6:17 a.m. Friday morning Cayman Islands time.

Meantime, Alison Jackson was fifth in her heat with 27.34 sec. That was good enough for 21st overall. “I think that’s an amazing result. It was a pretty good swim,” the 15-year-old said.

Also swimming in the morning session was David Ebanks in the men’s 100m breastroke. He finished third in his heat in 1:09.55 but failed to qualify for the next round.

He said he had a solid start over the first half of the race but slowed on the way back. “I gave it all I could and that was it. I’m happy with my effort,” he said, adding that he’s looking forward to his preferred event, the 50m breastroke on Sunday (Saturday night in the Cayman Islands.)

CaymanSportsBuzz.com will have continuous updates throughout the games.

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