Swimmer John Bodden impressed in the pool, while Cayman’s fastest man Kemar Hyman couldn’t capture the necessary pace Tuesday (6 August) at the XVIII Pan Am Games in Lima, Peru.
Bodden, 19, clocked personal bests in both the 400-metre freestyle – placing 15th in a time of 4:04.34 – and in the 200-metre butterfly where he finished 24th clocking 2:08.22.
“I swam pretty good today so I am excited,” said Bodden. “I went into the 400 event doing the best that I could. The 400 is my best event. Thirty minutes later, I had to do the 200 fly and do the best I could do in back-to-back races. I could feel the butterfly’s in my stomach, but I knew I had to push past that and swim faster, and it did help me.”
The McKendree University sophomore and Stingray Swim Club standout qualified for the B-Finals in the 400m free where he finished 16th overall with a time of 4:10.70.
“I kind of felt like the 200 fly was going to be my better event of the morning just because of how I felt in warm-up sessions,” said Bodden. “To get personal best in both of them, I didn’t think it would happen. I feel pretty happy to get a second chance to represent my country, and get another personal best. I know what I did this morning, so there’s always something I can do to tweak some things. I was shorter on my strokes, when I could have been long and powerful, so I know I can fix that.”
On the track, Cayman’s fastest man Kemar Hyman failed to qualify for the finals of the men’s 100-metres finishing third overall in heat two of the men’s semifinals in a time of 10.44 seconds, good for twelfth overall.
Hyman previously ran the second best time of his career clocking 10.02 seconds at May’s Johnny Loaring Classic in Windsor, Ontario. The 100-metre national record holder had also ran 10.10 this season at the University of Florida’s Tom Jones Memorial Meet in May.
“I am a little disappointed with the time, and not qualifying for finals,” said Hyman. “I’ve caught the flu, and I am disappointed with the weather, but things happen. I still have World Championships, so I still have a chance to do something amazing for my country.”
“It was nerve-wracking because I thought my time was faster than that,” he said. “I started to panic after my heat, and then the last heat did a little better. I am kind of annoyed because I knew I could have made finals easy. I normally don’t run in cold weather, but I was trying to keep a positive mind. This kind of weather risks injury, but I came out injury free. I should have made the finals easily based on my seasons best, but I will go back to the drawing board.”
Hyman previously ran the second best time of his career clocking 10.02 seconds at May’s Johnny Loaring Classic in Windsor, Ontario, qualifying him for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The 100-metre national record holder also ran 10.10 this season at the University of Florida’s Tom Jones Memorial Meet in May which qualified him for World Championships.
“We will train from now until October, and will see what happens at World Championships,” he said.
On the water, 19-year-old sailor Jesse Jackson competed in races three, four and five of the Laser Standard finishing 18th, 21st overall, and 22nd out of 22 sailors. On Monday (5 August), Jackson finished 20th and 22nd overall in the first and second races which were scheduled to start Saturday but were delayed until Monday due to lack of wind. He is currently 21st overall and will race three times on Wednesday.
“I am kind of disappointed,” said Jackson after races one. “We went out for a couple hours before the first start. I was trying to be really focused, and I executed really well but afterwards got some nerves and it killed my performance. My first two maneuvers weren’t clean, and in this fleet you have to be perfect or the guys will pass you. I got frustrated, and nerves kicked in and that’s not a good combination.”
“In the second race, sadly it was kind of a repeat. I had a couple of tactical errors. It was a lot to take away, a lot of nerves are gone, and anything can happen.”
19-year-old Lauren Hew will debut in the pool Wednesday (7 August) swimming the 200-metre freestyle at 11:00 a.m. Central Time.
View all of the results from the XVIII Pan Am Games here.
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