By Samantha Peene
Cayman’s two best male gymnasts are returning to the international stage in Medellín, Colombia for the Senior Pan American Championships.
The event serves as a qualifier for the Pan American Games and World Championships later this year. They are also the first step to Olympic qualification for individual all-around gymnasts.
Igor Magalhaes and Karthik Adapa have been climbing the ranks in the world of men’s gymnastics, making a name for themselves and putting Cayman on the map. This week, they will be up against the biggest names in the world of sports, competing against athletes from Team USA, Team Canada and more teams from the Pan American region; many of which are stacked with Olympians and World Champions.
The qualifying competition and main event for Cayman will be on Friday, 26 May.
The two will be led by coach Kyle Perry, who has been the head coach of the Cayman Islands Men’s Gymnastics Team since 2019, and coached the pair until September 2022, when Magalhaes moved to the UK to attend university and continued to train at Notts Gymnastics Academy. Adapa is still coached by Perry in Cayman and has continued to break personal and national records.
Magalhaes arrived in Medellín on Monday, 22 May, and will be training with Perry as they await Adapa’s arrival on the day before competition. Adapa is unable to attend the training days prior to competition, due to conflicts with his UK Board A-Level exams.
Magalhaes returned to the competition floor for the first time this year on 13 May at the London Open.
“I was able to compete new skills that I will be doing in Colombia and it was a good confidence booster to settle the nerves,” said Magalhaes.
He has been dealing with a recent shoulder and finger injury that has been holding him back in preparation for the season, especially on the parallel bars and rings; two of the six events in the men’s rotation. He has been taking time to rehab his injuries and will be on the floor to compete his suite of upgraded skills in Medellin.
Adapa has had a strong start to the season, finishing fourth overall at Gasparilla Classic, a competition in St. Petersburg, Florida, where he competed at the elite level.
“It felt great,” Adapa said about competing against the other elite gymnasts and hitting six for six with no falls throughout the competition.
Coach Perry says the atmosphere in the gym has been great, and the pair have made upgrades on every event in the hopes of achieving a further personal best all-around and individual event scores.
Perry also said everyone misses having Magalhaes in the gym since he left for university in the UK.
“Karthik has become the leader and role model for the boys and has really helped the younger guys,” he said.
Cayman has a small team of promising young male gymnasts with lots of potential who look up to Magalhaes and Adapa, who are paving the way for their athletic careers.
Justin Spencer and Alex Hare are rising stars in the programme and are bound for Inter-Island Games in Åland, Finland, in July to compete on the senior men’s team with Magalhaes and Adapa at their first ever international games. The Inter-Island Games are a satellite event to the NatWest Island Games which do not include gymnastics in 2023.
The audience will witness skills that have never been competed by Cayman on the international stage, including a triple-back dismount off the high bar for Magalhaes and news skills on both the parallel bars and rings for Adapa.
The two are excited to reunite and see how much each other has improved since Magalhaes left for the UK last year, and both have a similar goal of making it through the days of competition with clean routines and no falls and qualifying for the Senior Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile later this year.
- Journalist Samantha Peene is currently in Medellín with the athletes.
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