SPORTS

Top athletes Slash and Dash in Cayman

Kareem Streete-Thompson receives a sponsorship
cheque from Alee Fa’amoe of Cable & Wireless

Asafa Powell who will go head to head with Kareem
Streete-Thompson on Saturday on Seven Mile Beach

Friday,  December 10, 2004

The Cayman Islands Sports Development Company (CISPODECO) are presenting Cayman’s first ever Splash and Dash contest this Saturday, (11 December) with some of the world’s leading athletes taking part. 

Cayman’s Kareem Streete- Thompson will be partnering USA’s Neil Walker, Athens Olympic & world multi-gold medallist and together they will take on Asafa Powell of Jamaica and Nate Dusing USA Athens Olympic and World Gold medallist. 

The swimmers will head down the beach swim 100 metres, and then tag their running mates who will back a fifty-metre sprint back through the sand. The winners of Best 2 of 3 will claim the title of “World 2004 Beach Sprint Kings.”

The day’s sporting event also includes an address by HE the Governor Bruce Dinwiddy, the presentation by Leader of Government Business Hon McKeeva Bush and the Dr Hon Frank McField, and speeches by Kareem Streete-Thompson as well as the national coach Dave Kelsheimer.

In training for the Bejing Olympics Streete-Thompson is looking forward to taking on Asafa Powell. Sponsored by Cable and Wireless Streete-Thompson explained how important the communication company’s support was to him.

“I would never have survived to get to Athens without the help from C&W. Their financial assistance allowed me to move to Raleigh, North Carolina to train directly with my coach, Dan Pfaff.

“Without that support, I would not have even qualified for the 100m in Athens,” observed Street-Thompson.

“In addition their provision of a global roaming phone allowed me to compete worldwide while keeping in constant touch with my coach, trainers, physio, media, friends and family.

“My phone also keeps me in daily contact with the world top athletes, and helps me to persuade top talent like Asafa to visit our Island.”

This weekend’s competition is a made for TV event and was conceived by Mr Streete-Thompson and Cayman’s National Swim coach Mr Kelsheimer, not only for the pleasure of sports fans, but to help put the Cayman Islands back on the map.

“I’ve been desperate to get back to Cayman since 11 September to help with the clean-up efforts,” said Kareem. “In speaking with my Cayman friends, family, business manager and my sponsors especially Cable and Wireless we discussed a number of ways for me to help, from trying soliciting donations in the US to volunteering my time on the Island. It became clear the most valuable contribution I could make was to help build global awareness of the destruction caused by Hurricane Ivan, help publicise the clean up efforts and to showcase that the Cayman Islands is rebuilding as a premier Caribbean tourist destination for 2005.”

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