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Massive fun at open water relay
- Updated: 28 March 2017
Conditions at Seven Mile Beach were perfect for swimming.
With bright sunshine beaming down on Seven Mile Beach and the mercury reading in the mid-80s, it was a perfect day to take a swim last Saturday (25 March). While that was the ideal setting for a leisurely dip, more than a hundred people got their competitive juices flowing for the 2017 Massive Open Water Relay.
Teams of four competed in the 4 x 400m (12 and under) and the 4 x 600m (13 and over). The Cayman Islands Amateur Swimming Association (CIASA) event was sponsored by Massive for the fourth straight year and funds raised go toward the national team’s participation in the CARIFTA Swimming Championships in Bahamas from 15-19 April.
The first team out of the water was ‘Pink Rainbow Fluffy Unicorns’ comprised of Finn Bishop, Sophie Ellison, Jackson Haywood-Crouch, and Stefano Bonati in the 4x400m. All four swimmers are getting set for CARIFTA.
In the 4 x 600m event, the ‘For Migos’ team of John Bodden, Zachary Moore, Liam Henry and Jonathan Key – all swimmers heading to Bahamas – dominated the field.
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- Pink Rainbow Fluffy Unicorns
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- For Migos
“It was great. Just the team environment and the great sponsors we had made this event fun,” Key said. “The team chemistry that we have with these four guys is unbelievable.”
Meantime, Bodden explained why he enjoyed the Massive Open Water Relay. “When we swim other sea swims, it’s usually by yourself unless you’re with a teammate drafting but this time it was working together as a team to win,” said the swimmer, who is accustomed to being way out front in open water events.
Among those joining in the fun was Brazilian Olympian Nicolas Nilo Oliveira, who was on island for a Stingray Swim Club organised clinic and motivational talk.
“That was a lot of fun. It was hard to focus because I kept on looking to the bottom, checking out some fish and everything. I’ve been around for many, many years swimming [and] I’ve been to many places but this is blowing my mind. I’ve never swam in a setting as beautiful as this. This is something special,” Oliveira told CaymanSportsBuzz.com.
Oliveira: “I’ve never swam in a setting as beautiful as this.”
David Kirkaldy, president of the Massive Group, was on hand to witness the fun. He said it is rewarding as a corporate entity to support sports on the island.
“We find it to be hugely important. You look around and there are people from every walk of life here. Sports is a wonderfully unifying thing around the world. Whatever we can do to be a small part of helping a group that’s doing good things here, we want to be a part of,” he said in an interview with CaymanSportsBuzz.com.
He added that knowing the funds raised would go toward assisting the CARIFTA team leaves a good feeling, especially since the swimmers are expected to do well and return with several medals.
Here are a few of the pictures we snapped:
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