SPORTS
Cayman competitors rise to the challenge
Thursday, July 21, 2005
AFTER both Cayman Islands team members competing in the 100 metres for boys
set new personal best times at the World Youth Championships in Marrakech,
Morocco, a lot was expected of them in the remaining events of the
Championships.
The next event for the Cayman National Team was the 200 metre dash for
boys, where Cayman would again be represented by Kemar Hyman and Tyrell Cuffy.
The first two competitors in each heat would advance to the semi-final round,
as would the eight fastest remaining competitors.
In heat one Kemar Hyman ran a time of 21.79 to place third in his heat. His
time was good enough to qualify him for the semi-final round. This reaction
time of 0.143 seconds was almost a full two hundredths of a second faster that
the next fastest reaction time in his heat.
In heat three, Tyrell Cuffy ran a new PB of 21.73 to place third in his
heat. His time was also good enough to go through to the semi-final round.
In semi-final heat two, Kemar Hyman ran a new PB of 22 seconds dead. In
spite of this sterling effort, that was not enough to advance him to the final
of the event.
In semi-final heat three, Tyrell Cuffy also ran a new personal best time
for the event. His time of 21.60 seconds placed him fourth in his heat. This
meant that Cuffy had improved on his personal best in each of his runs in the
200 metres, which suggests that he not only thrives on international
competition, but is also capable of even better times.
With the first two athletes in every heat qualifying for the final, there
were only two more places available to the athletes with fastest remaining
times. Cuffy was exceedingly unlucky to miss out on one of these slots, being
the second fastest athlete not to make it through to the final. The final was
won by Harry Aikines-Aryeetey of Great Britain, in a new World Youth Leading
time of 20.91 seconds.
In the heat one of the medley relay, Kemar Hyman and Tyrell Cuffy were
joined by the two other members of the Cayman team, Richard Ibeh and Maxwell
Hyman. The team ran a new personal best time for the event, but competing
against the very best, and much bigger, teams in the world, they were not able
to reach the finals.
The Cayman Islands team rose to the challenge of the World Youth
Championships, with every athlete setting a new personal best time in every
event they participated in. This shows how important strong international
competition is to the development of our athletes. It is often said that the
important thing is not winning, but doing your best. Well, the Cayman Islands
athletes did not just do their best – they improved their best. With such
competitive spirit and big-game mentality, the future of Cayman athletics
looks bright indeed.
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