The Flowers family welcomed 850 athletes, some as far away as Australia, Brazil, Scotland and Spain, to the island paradise of the Cayman Islands for the Flowers Sea Swim. Warmth, camaraderie and friendship greeted the athletes, all of whom will enjoy the world's most extravagant post-race prize giveaway.
A select few will also be chasing after US$25,000 reward given to the swimmer who breaks the record for the world's fastest recorded ocean mile and US$5,000 for setting a new event record.
The goal times are 16:00 for the men's world record and 17:20 for the event record. The women will aim for the world record of 17:21 and the event record of 18:13. With a favorable tide helping the swimmers, there may be two swimmers who will earn the rewards.
Olympic gold medalist BJ Bedford, 16-year-old world championship swimmer Eva Fabian, 2-time world champion and Olympic silver medalist Kristy Kowal, NCAA champion and Olympian Rada Owen, Great Britain national team member Stephanie Proud, defending women's champion Bethany Robertson of Australia, world record holder and NCAA champion Gemma Spofforth of Great Britain will compete tomorrow.Similarly, the number of age-groupers and masters swimmers who are joining the tropical event include people from all over. Lucky Meisenheimer of Florida, Andrew Campbell and Steph Campbell from Scotland, local comedian Big Kahuna, Canadian masters swimmer Wendy Buckner are just a few examples of the 116 visitors from Canada, Spain, Australia, Great Britain, Guatemala, Brazil and USA who participate.
The sponsorship and competition behind the charity Flowers Sea Swim is only getting stronger, bouyed by the energy and support of the Flowers family who are expecting an extremely competitive race.
"Everyone is expecting Shaune Fraser to win," said Kate Alexander, one of the race organizers. "Frank turned the course around this year to run with the prevailing current with the hopes that someone will set a new event record. "It's a more interesting swim from the north as the beach has more of a curve so the straight line is over deeper water, will take good sighting skills."
Copyright © 2010 by Steven Munatones
Don't know if you are aware of this or not but Wendy Buckner died of cardiac arrest shortly after completing the race. She will be missed.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for this very sad information.
ReplyDeleteNews of Wendy's death is reverberating around the world, today. She touched many lives, and was a friend to everyone who met her. The world is a bit sadder place, today.
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