The sun was out to welcome the
swimmers back to the pool for the Stingray Swim Club’s first meet of 2010, the
sixth KPMG Get Back in the Water Burner Meet.
The first ‘burner’ was staged in
2005 and was specifically aimed at getting swimmers into the pool after the
trauma of Ivan.
The emphasis was on fun and
participation and was such a success that SSC now holds at least two a year. As
the emphasis is on fun, there are no high points awards, although medals and
ribbons are awarded and Colin Nicholson, a partner at KPMG, was there to
witness the end of the meet and have a photograph taken with the swimmers.
It was also a nice touch that two
of the young accountants from this long-term supporter of the Cayman Swimming
came out and worked as timers.
Nicholson commended the hard work
of the swimmers and all the parents and volunteers in delivering a top-notch
event.
“As part of our commitment to our
community, KPMG is extremely happy to have been a sponsor and support the kids
in being active and trying their best,” he added.
There were many new faces which
pleased the Stingray Swim Club organisers who were holding a membership drive
the same day.
It was also used to launch the SSC
newsletter and hand out this year’s new T-shirt.
Adam Roberts of the Stingray club
said: “It may be fun, and it certainly was as lots of happy faces showed, but
it was also fast (the longest race was 50 metres) and the swimmers took the
racing pretty seriously.
“Sadly, the speed of the races
proved a problem for the electronic timing equipment, which eventually was abandoned
in favour of old-fashioned hand-held watches and manual inputting of times into
the system (many thanks to Penny McDowall for doing that).
“The delays while the computer was
examined and heads were scratched trying to fix the problem didn’t dampen everyone’s
enthusiasm.”
Corey Westerborg and Max Palmer,
both six, were competing in their first meet and they won three of the four
races in their age-group.
Elsewhere, CARIFTA veteran Lara
Butler won all four of the senior girls’ races while at the other end of the
spectrum, four four-year-olds completed races - Christoffer Mikkelsen, Sofia
Watler and Marisa Poole who swam all
four strokes.
But for many the highlight was the
fun relay in the middle of the meet, which saw coaches and national swim team
members doing 25 metres of doggy—paddle; the result was a resounding win for a
combined coaches’ and parents’ team.
SSC president Brenda McGrath said
she was delighted with the turnout and the great interest shown in the club.
“It was wonderful to see so many of
the younger swimmers and so many new faces around the pool deck at a meet. It
was a wonderful day and we look forward to building on this through the rest of
the year.”
Next up is a SSC trip to Jamaica to
take part in the Karl Dalhouse Invitational Meet, and then on 13-17 February it
is the Cayman Water Meet and CARIFTA trials to which all are welcome.
Contact any member of the Board
or visit the SSC website (http://www.caymanswimming.com/)
for details. All the results from Saturday’s meet will soon be available on the
website.