The 2025 World Aquatics Swimming World Cup recently featured competitive performances from Cayman swimmers James Allison and Connor Macdonald across two North America stops.
Both 19-year-old athletes participated in short course metres freestyle events against strong international fields, with Allison competing in Westmont, US, from 17-19 Oct. and Macdonald in Toronto, Canada from 23-25 Oct.
Allison’s focus at the Westmont stop was the 50, 100, and 200-metre freestyle events.
He achieved two personal bests, with 1:46.50 seconds in heat five of the 200m freestyle and 22.68 seconds in heat three of the 50m freestyle. Additionally, he swam a time of 49:05 in heat six of the 100m freestyle.
While he did not advance from the heats in any of his races, Allison remained optimistic, stating, “I’m really happy with my personal bests. It’s still early in the season, so I know there’s more to come and that I’m capable of a lot more.
“Moving forward, I’m focusing on staying consistent across all my events and continuing to build my confidence and race strategy each meet,” Allison added.
A few days later, Macdonald hit the water in Toronto, focusing on the longer distance freestyle events.
In his first race on 23 Oct., he competed in heat one of the 400m, swimming to a time of 4:02.56 minutes.
The following day, Macdonald clocked a time of 16:07.07 minutes in heat one of the 1500m freestyle, a personal accomplishment that shaved just over 13 seconds off his previous personal best of 16:20.75.
An enthusiastic Macdonald said he is “very satisfied” with his performances adding, “I basically tied my personal best in the 400m free, and I dropped 13 seconds in my 1500m free. Going these times this early in the season is exciting as I believe there’s still plenty of room for improvement throughout the rest of the season.”
