Students Callisthenics Challenge

On Tuesday (15 March) afternoon, the top two male and female athletes from 11 Cayman Islands Government schools participated in a series of challenges at the new Callisthenics Park located at the Seven Mile Public Beach as part of its official opening.

    Bella Persaud, Jonathon Henny, Jelena Maize, Rasheed Lawrence, Jahriah Ngyou, Caelan Foreshaw, Micah Leon and Jevonte Lodge placed first in the male and female categories in challenges, including pushups, hang tests, rows and the use of blaze pods.

   Trainers from the Rec Room Gym led the challenges with the assistance of a team of internationally acclaimed callisthenics street workout athletes.

    Mr. Brian Walpole, the challenge coordinator and manager of the Rec Room Gym, was impressed with the students' performance. He said, "Both myself and the visiting athletes were impressed with the level of ability of all the students that took part in the various challenges and their athleticism, their keenness to learn and their willingness to take part. I was also impressed that there are some promising athletes in the group. I think callisthenics will add a lot to the community as kids will have this free to use space so that they can use and take part whenever they want."

    Students were also thrilled to participate in the challenges that tested their strength and reaction speed.

   Micah Leon, Clifton Hunter High School student and gymnast, had this to say, "I am absolutely excited to be a part of the challenges and more so to win the pushup competition. It feels like the hard work and upper body strength that I have been doing at gymnastics is paying off". 

   Lighthouse School Physical Education teacher Ms. Claire Panyandee looked forward to using the facility as part of her school's fitness programme.

    "Our school will benefit from this. We have already begun thinking about bringing them [students] down for PE lessons as part of our fitness module and hopefully getting some of the other athletes around the island to come and support them with it. I believe it is a good addition, and we're really going to make use of it,” Ms. Panyandee remarked.

Challenge winners received athletic backpacks courtesy of the Rec Room Gym.

Challenge Winners