Stone leaps to CARIFTA double

The Cayman Islands started incredibly well at the first CARIFTA Games since 2019 because of the covid pandemic, winning one athletics gold and 14 medals in the pool on Saturday, the opening day. Long jumper Andrew Stone grabbed gold in the boys Under-17 with a leap of 6.76 metres at the National Stadium in Kingston, Jamaica, then excelled again in the high jump on Sunday.

Stone’s magnificent long jump was well clear of silver medallist, Trinidadian Andrew Steele (6.61m) and the bronze medallist Euan Young of Jamaica (6.60m). Stone then shone again, high jumping 2.00m to grab silver. Jamaica’s Chavez Penn (2.05m) won gold and Aaron McKenzie (1.95m), also Jamaica, earned bronze. Cayman’s boys u17 4x100m relay team won bronze (40.72 seconds) behind Jamaica’s (39.15) gold and the Bahamas (40.41) silver.

James Crooks, better known as a swimmer, was in the boys 17-19 1500m. He came ninth in the final recording a time of 4 minutes, 25.81 secs. Yanelli Dawkins was eighth in the girl u20 discus with 29.33m.

Devon Wright competed in the octathon and started his campaign with an 11.73 second 100 metres in the boys u20 category. Marlon Satahoo threw 38.50m in the boys 17-19 javelin but did not advance to the finals. Aaliyannah Anderson ran the 100m in 12.67 secs to qualify for the next round in the girls u17 and then 12.43 secs in the semi-finals. In the girls u17 shot put, Mikayla Brown threw 10.69m. Davonte Howell was fourth in the boys 17-19 100m in 10.65 secs and Jaiden Reid ran 10.81 secs. In the semis, Reid ran 10.56 secs and Howell’s 10.58 secs to both get into the final. Reid (10.53) was fourth in the final and Howell (10.63) was seventh. High jumper Josh Gardner leaped 1.95m in the boys u20 to place joint fourth. Stephen Watson recorded a no height at 1.85m.

On Saturday, the medals flowed for the swimmers at the CARIFTA Games in Christ Church, Barbados, seven of the 14 were gold. Medallists were Lola Haworth, Kyra Rabess, Harper Barrowman, Coco McGrath, Dominic Hilton, Kaitlyn Sullivan, siblings Luke and Lila Higgo, Jillian Crooks, Sierrah Broadbelt, Brianna Fischetti, Sofia Bonati and Kathryn Lambert-Wragg.

The second night of the 35th CARIFTA Swimming Championship began for Cayman with Rabess and Crooks showcasing their talent separating from the field in the 200m freestyle. Rabess touched the wall less than two tenths of a second ahead of her teammate in front of an excited, cowbell ringing, horn blowing crowd. In the boys 200m freestyle, James Allison won silver as he challenged Nikoli Blackman, of Trinidad and Tobago, to the finish.

A night after dominating the 50m backstroke, the Higgos, along with Crooks duplicated the feat again in the 100m backstroke. Lila again broke a CARIFTA record, which had stood for five years. Lev Fahy joined Luke on the medal stand with a strong swim to win bronze. Crooks again led wire to wire in her gold medal performance.

During the long 400m individual medleys, the DJ gets the crowd pumped up. Coco McGrath, Teagan Nash, Dominic Hilton, and Harper Barrowman fed off the energy to earn silver medals in their respective age groups. Kassandra Adapa and Will Sellars also put in great efforts in the challenging event.

The Cayman girls relay teams made it look as easy as 1,2,3 to cap off the session in the 4x100m medley. The 13–14-year-old quartet of Lila Higgo, Brianna Fischetti, Sierrah Broadbelt, and Sofia Bonati held off strong challenges to win gold. Harper Barrowman’s strong finish gave the 15-17 team with Kailtlyn Sullivan, Rabess and Crooks silver. First time CARIFTA participants Riley Watson, Eva Oldfield teamed with Adapa and McGrath to secure bronze in the 11-12 division.

Cayman added 14 more medals on Sunday to take the haul to 28 by the halfway point. The athletics competition finished on Monday and swimming on Tuesday.