Ferguson wins season-opening Foster’s 800 sea swim

The domestic sea swim season opened on Saturday (15 Oct.) with Thomas Ferguson edging defending winner Will Sellars to take first in the 38th-annual Foster’s 800-metre Sea Swim.

“It’s a really significant event,” Cayman Islands Aquatic Sports Association Events Director Martin Trott said. “It normally kicks off our open water swim season for the 800 meters and we’re very grateful that Foster’s sponsored it again this year. This is the 38th running, would you believe, in this event, which is fantastic support for Cayman swimming.”

Ferguson finished first with a time of 9-minutes, 29.7 seconds, while Sellars (9:33.05), Harper Barrowman (9:37.3), Jordan Lisle (9:46.02) and Sierrah Broadbelt (10:05.02) round out the top five.

“Obviously amazing. You see everyone — all the clubs, all the parents, all the coaches. Even my dad [Camana Bay Aquatic Club coach Grant Ferguson] swam today. Amazing to see everyone come out and try their best,” Thomas Ferguson said.

The Foster’s 800 marks the first of a series of local open water events, including the 5K national championships, the Pirates Week 5K, the Flow, Butterfield and CUC 800 sea swims and the annual Flowers Sea Swim.

“One of CIASA’s priorities is to push open water swimming as much as we possibly can,” Trott said. “Because, as you can see, we have incredible facilities. Seven Mile Beach is one of the best — if not the best — open water swim facilities in the Caribbean. So we need to use that to our advantage and get as many of these swims in the calendar as we can.”

Foster’s Managing Director Woody Foster said the sea swims bring the community together, which is why the organisation continues to support the event.

“My dad started this 38 years ago because he was a big swimmer, loved swimming,” Foster said. “The first one was the Pirates Week 3-mile and we’ve just been doing it every year since. We love it. It’s a great event.”

Up next on the local swimming calendar is the CBAC Fall Kick-Off Meet 21-23 Oct. at the Camana Bay Pool. The next local open water swim is the 12 Nov. Pirates Week KPMG 5K.

CIASA is the recognised national governing body of all Aquatic Sports (comprised of competitive swimming, open water swimming, diving, high diving, water polo and synchronised swimming) in the Cayman Islands and is an affiliated member of FINA, PanAm Aquatics, CCCAN, Island Games Association of the Cayman Islands, CARIFTA and the Cayman Islands Olympic Committee. For more information email ciasaboard@gmail.com   or visit the CIASA website at www.ciasa.ky .