National swim meet debuts this weekend

(CIASA): The Cayman Islands Amateur Swimming Association (CIASA) continues to raise the standard for organized sport in the Cayman Islands, this time partnering with Dart to introduce the inaugural CIASA National Championships to the competitive swim calendar, taking place February 20-23rd at the Camana Bay Aquatic Centre. The CIASA National Championships for swimming will be conducted in the preliminaries and finals format that is commonly used in international competition. “Our Technical Director, Bailey Weathers and the coaches from our three swim clubs all agreed that Cayman’s swimmers would benefit from having a prelims and finals meet here at home,” said CIASA President Peter MacKay.

“International meets such as CARIFTA, the Island Games and the World Masters Championships use this format and now our swimmers can start developing strategies which will allow them to swim fast in the preliminary heats, thus getting to the finals; and then faster in the finals. Our goal is to get Cayman swimming in to as many finals as possible and this is a step in the right direction towards preparing our swimmers to do so,” he added.

In addition to being the first swimming National Championships, this is also the last local meet that Cayman’s CARIFTA hopefuls can achieve CARIFTA qualifying times for the pool events at. Prior to CARIFTA there will be a 5K Sea Swim which will provide eligible swimmers with another opportunity to make a CARIFTA Open Water qualifying time. 

CIASA will announce the members of the CARIFTA 2014 CIASA Representative Team the week of March 10th.  Please contact the CIASA Technical Director, Bailey Weathers, at technicaldirector@ciasa.ky if you wish to provide financial support/sponsor the CIASA Representative Team competing for and representing the Cayman Islands CARIFTA 2014 in Aruba in April.

The CIASA National Championships is for swimmers of all ages, including Masters Swimmers and will have 158 different events available. Members of the public are encouraged to come to the pool and support our athletes or to volunteer; and if you want to volunteer please contact Meet Directors Albert Anderson at ava@candw.ky or Ian Lambert at iclambert@hotmail.com. 

“Dart believes strongly in the values and work ethic that are so strongly displayed in Cayman’s swimmers,” said Joanne Lawson – a former Cayman Islands CARIFTA swimmer herself – and a member of Dart’s Corporate Sponsorship Committee. “We are delighted to be a part of this inaugural National Championship Swim Meet and to host it at the Camana Bay Aquatic Centre. We look forward to welcoming the swimmers, officials and supporters to the pool this weekend.”

Swim action starts on Thursday 20th and Friday 21st with prelims at 8:15am and finals at 4:45pm; and on Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd prelims are at 8:30am and finals at 4:45pm.

The Cayman Islands Amateur Swimming Association (CIASA) is a volunteer, not for profit association dedicated to furthering the interests of all aquatic sports in the Cayman Islands. CIASA is the recognized Governing Body of aquatic sports in the Cayman Islands and is a member of FINA, UANA, CCCAN and the CIOC. For more information on CIASA www.ciasa.ky.