Junior and senior athletes turned out for the Cayman Islands National Track and Field Championships, held at the Truman Bodden Sports Complex over the weekend.
Among the competitors at the event, held from 25-26 June, were Caymanian collegiate standouts Jaden Francis, Louis Gordon, Rasheem Brown, Jaiden Reid and Olympian Shalysa Wray.
“We have been trying to get our international athletes to return home for our national championships, so that our local athletes can see what the next level looks like and give them something to strive towards,” Osbert Francis, vice president of the Cayman Islands Athletics Association told the Compass.
Brown, 22, a senior at North Carolina A&T State University, hit the track for the 110-metre hurdles, which he won in a time of 13.70 seconds.
“It’s a very humbling experience,” Brown told the Compass. “It’s nice to be home. I am happy to see my supporters here. My parents were here, so I’m very grateful.”
While the national championships featured its traditional track and field events for its respective age groups, this year, athletes in the under-20 category were placed in the open category. Francis said the changes were effective.
“We choose to combine the U20’s and the open this year because our U20 bracket was sparse in several of the events,” he said. “So, we thought the athletes would have a better opportunity for a more competitive meet and, I dare say, that it worked out.”
At just 16 years old, Aaliyannah Anderson was one of the youngest sprinters taking part in the open events. The Mustang Track Club member took first in the 100m event, but met her match in the 200m finals.
The highly anticipated 200m race was eagerly anticipated as a chance for Anderson to pull off the ultimate upset against Cayman’s current top female runner, Shalysa Wray.
However, the 23-year-old junior at Kansas State University exceeded expectations, winning the race, and earning a new personal best time of 23.58 seconds. Anderson finished second in a time of 25.45 seconds.
Jaden Francis, who is finishing her freshman year at the University of South Florida, ran her team to first place in the women’s 4x100m open relay.
Francis, along with Falcon Athletics teammates Ashantae Graham, Deneisha Taylor and Renia Smith, clocked in at 48.69 seconds to claim gold.
Patricia Bent, co-head coach at Falcon Athletics, said that the girls’ hard work leading up to the event paid off.
“They are athletes extremely dedicated to their training,” Bent told the Compass. “They have been coming up from the junior ranks, so it was just a matter of coming out and doing the baton passes.”
Bent went on to praise all the other athletes who competed during the national championships.
“Some of these children will go on to CARIFTA, go on to university teams and some may even become our future Olympians for the Cayman Islands.”
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