Hundreds turned out to cheer on some of Cayman’s best track-and-fielders who competed at the Truman Bodden Sports Complex in the annual CUC Youth & CARIFTA Track and Field Championships.
The championships, commonly known as the Cayman CARIFTA trials, took place from 1-2 March, featuring personal bests, records and even CARIFTA qualifying marks.
“The CUC meet has always drawn the crowd,” Delroy Murray, president of the Cayman Islands Athletic Association, told the Compass. “We’ve had some exciting running throughout the entire meet, and we had one…athlete who qualified – Anthony Chin, who again beat the qualifying mark in long jump.”
So far, three athletes have qualified for the 51st CARIFTA Games, set to take place at the Kirani James Athletic Stadium in Grenada from 30 March-1 April, compared to the 44 that will be representing Cayman in swimming in the Bahamas.
“It is not going to be a huge team to Grenada; I don’t see it happening because the standards are fairly [difficult],” Murray said.
He noted that he is hopeful more athletes will be a part of the team but because of their school obligations it will be hard to organise.
“It is regrettable that we still don’t have the athletes who I would expect people would have loved to see out here,” he said. “The guys in the under-20s ran some incredible times last year but they are at university, and it was difficult trying to get them here.”
Cayman runners like Davonte Howell, who won gold in the 100 metres last year, may not be available to defend his title, as he continues his freshman indoor pre-season at the University of Tennessee.
“We have to have these meets this time of year when these youngsters are running indoors, and indoor running is different from outdoor running,” Murray said.
He reflected on the weather during the championships over the weekend, saying it affected some of the performances, further hurting their chances of making the CARIFTA team.
“The wind was a big problem… especially for the javelin throwers, but all in all the people enjoyed themselves and the athletes showed up and they performed.”
One athlete who performed was Brianna Smith, who qualified for the CARIFTA Games in shot put. She will join Chin and top junior high jumper Andrew Stone in Grenada, and possibly an under-20 4×100 metre relay team, according to Murray.
Murray also praised the younger athletes who competed at the championships, saying, “The future looks good; it’s just [we need] to keep the athletes in the sport and organise more meaningful meets outside of Cayman.”
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