SPECIAL Olympics Jamaica (SOJ) athletes Kadian Ingleton and Andrew Bartholomew are set to leave the island later today for the Cayman Islands to participate in that country’s Open Water Swim Meet.

They will be accompanied by coach Gabriel Heron and are expected to return on Sunday.

This is the second year Jamaica is competing in the Cayman Open Water event.

The two senior athletes have been training assiduously and are seeking the qualifying time which could see Jamaica competing in the Open Water Swim Meet at the Los Angeles 2015 World Summer games in California, United States.

SOJ held their first-ever stand-alone swimming competition at the University of Technology pool in February and the organisation says that the athletes have stepped up training to three days per week at the National Stadium swimming pool.

Jamaica’s quota for the Los Angeles games is 69 athletes. Six persons are expected to be allotted for swimming.

The tropical island attracted global recognition due to historic achievements at the Special Olympics 2013 World Winter Games in the Republic of Korea.

Jamaica won silver medals in two ice figure skating categories to go with their second-place finish in floor hockey at the eight-day Championship.

The Special Olympic International movement targets the breaking down of barriers that exclude people with intellectual disabilities from mainstream society.

The disabilities can either be acquired or genetic and can include cases of Down’s Syndrome, traumatic brain injury, autism, and cerebral palsy.

— Sanjay Myers