Young swimmers clock personal bests at meet

(CBAC): A team of Camana Bay Aquatic Club (CBAC) and Stingray Swim Club (SSC) swimmers, their coaches and a support group of parents travelled to Toronto earlier this month, to compete in the 13th Annual Mega City Short Course Special and North York Aquatic Club (NYAC) 29th Annual Youth Cup, both of which took place 1-4 December. The event saw younger swimmers make significant strides toward their individual goals. “For some of the younger swimmers, this was their first taste of competitive swimming abroad,” said CBAC coach Katie Lambert. “There were approximately 850 swimmers in the Mega City and some events had over 185 swimmers competing in them. We had 26 swimmers compete altogether, and all achieved personal best times.”

Mega City is a developmental meet for newer, emerging talent; while the Youth Cup is an international high calibre swim meet for competitive swimmers ages 11 to 17. Both meets are highly respected within the international youth swim circuit. This year the two meets were held at the Etobicoke Olympian pool, to accommodate the more than 1200 swimmers from across Canada, as well as the 32 Cayman Islands swimmers.

Lois Moody, 14, placed 1st in the 100-metre Butterfly with a personal best of 1minute, 17.54 seconds and Isabella Tognazzo, 13, who placed 1st in the 100-metre Backstroke with a personal best of 1 minute, 16.65 seconds. Kavanagh Lambert, 11, placed 3rd in the 50-metre Breaststroke with a time of 41.55 seconds and Drew Milgate, 12, placed 3rd in the 50-metre Breaststroke with a time of 43.21 seconds. CBAC had a total of 32 top ten finishes over the weekend, leading the team to place 6th overallagainst 12 swim clubs.

Six swimmers from CBAC and SSC also participated in the Youth Cup. CBAC had two swimmers in the Youth Cup, and one of them – Coral Tomascik – was also a member of the Cayman Islands Representative Team.

“The Youth Cup was a very fast meet with many talented swimmers,” said Coach Katie. “Both Danielle Boothe and Coral Tomascik had a total of ten personal bests between them; Tomascik, 14, swam a personal best of 28.39 seconds in the 50-metre Freestyle to place 9th and Boothe, 15, took three seconds off her personal best in the 100-metre Breaststroke to place 8th.

SSC members of the Representative Team were brothers Geoffrey and Simon Butler and Alex and Iain McCallum. All four brothers had personal bests in multiple events with Geoffrey placing 9th in the 15-17 age group, 400-metre Freestyle and finishing his 200-metre Freestyle in under two minutes for the first time; Simon reached his first final in the 400-metre Freestyle and finished 8th overall; and both Iain and Alex had personal bests with Alex knocking 4 seconds off his 200-metre Backstroke. National Coach Dominic Ross accompanied the SSC swimmers swimming for the Representative Team.

The Camana Bay Aquatic Club will mark its first-year anniversary this month. In less than a year, the Club has grown to almost 150 team members, spanning ages 5 to 15. Coach Katie Lambert, who has been at the helm of the Club since its inception, says the growing success of the Camana Bay Aquatic Club is due to the strong team atmosphere and the many benefits of competitive swimming. “I am very proud of the team for training so hard over the past few months,” said Coach Katie. “So many of the swimmers had set great personal goals and competing in the Youth Cup and Mega City meets is just the beginning. Most clubs had over 150 swimmers competing, so we did really well to finish in 6th place.”

CBAC, based at the Camana Bay Sports Complex, is one of two swim clubs on island; Stingray Swim Club is headquartered at the Lions Aquatic Centre. Both Clubs are governed by the Cayman Islands Amateur Swimming Association (CIASA).

For more information about the Camana Bay Aquatic Club, email Coach Katie Lambert at:
katie.lambert@camanabay.com. For more information about the Stingray Swim Club, which celebrates its 15th anniversary this year, email stingraysec@gmail.com or visit www.caymanswimming.com

For highlights from the Youth Cup and Mega City meets, visit www.facebook.com/pages/Camana-Bay-
Aquatic-Club