BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - FIFTEEN athletes from St. Kitts-Nevis have attained a qualifying mark for the 2014 CARIFTA Games at Sunday’s (Feb. 9) Development Meet, the most to have qualified in any one local meet.
The Games are slated to take place during the upcoming Easter weekend in Martinique.
In an exclusive interview with SKNVibes Sports, Public Relations Officer of the St. Kitts-Nevis Amateur Athletic Association (SKNAAA) Evris Huggins stated that the Meet was beyond the Association’s expectations and that over 350 athletes participates.
“The meet exceeded our expectations by all standards. We always host the development meets with hopes of scouting new talents. Another objective is for members of the coaching community to identify the strength and weaknesses of their athletes and we also look forward to the media identifying athletes ahead of the scholastic championships. The performances were very outstanding, the standards were of a high calibre and we were quite contempt with the results of the meet.”
He highlighted some of those performers who have achieved the qualifying standards.
“We have Krystal Liburd she attained an ‘A’ standard in the triple jump, her very first time triple jumping she attained an ‘A’ standard in that category, U-18. We had three high jumpers attaining qualifying standards. We had Tywanya Robinson, Shavone Bostonand and Tahir Jefferson who all got ‘B’ standards in that event.
“There was a hurdler Daril Warrner who attained a ‘B’ Standard in the U-18 400m. We had a very outstanding performance from Sadiki Tyson in the U-18 male race. He qualified in the ‘A’ standard in the 100 and 200 metres with respective times of 10. 62 and 21.47 respectively. He is just 16 years old and showing great promise.
“Nathaniel Huggins moved his ‘B’ standard to an ‘A’ standard in the Long Jump with a 7.35m performance. Renika Daniel veteran 400m athlete. She achieved a ‘B’ standard. We had Georgia Spencer in the Shotput she attained and ‘A’ standard in the U-18 category.
“Ashika Williams - who previously qualified with an ‘A’ standard - attained a ‘B’ mark last weekend. We have Corey Francis in the 100 metres U-18 male. He attained a ‘B’ standard. Adrian Williams - who is no stranger to javelin - got an opening mark of 59.59 metres. He is - of course - the defending Bronze medalist in the U-20 Male category.”
Huggins was also questioned about a target the Association is seeking to reach in terms of number of athletes.
“I would not disclose how many we sent in for the numerical entry but when you send them in you have to forecast a lot bigger than what your final entries are going to be. If what we are seeing now from Development Meet number four, the first at the Silver Jubilee Stadium, we may very well match our final entries with our numerical entries so it’s a very exciting time in the sports of track and field.”
He stated that there is also a chance of relay teams representing St. Kitts and Nevis being present in Martinique.
“I think our sport is growing in all areas. I can see the potential for us fielding relay teams at the CARIFTA games."
