BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - DESPITE the challenges posed by COVID-19 and the impact closure of sporting activities have had on athletics locally, St. Kitts and Nevis Athletics is in the process of selecting a team for the 2022 CARIFTA Games.
This year’s meet is slated for Kingston, Jamaica and President Delwayne Delaney has given the assurance that a team would represent the Federation at the premier regional junior meet.
“Yes, we are preparing to journey to Jamaica for the 49th CARIFTA Games. Currently we are in preparation mode and we will be preparing a training squad that will be overseen by the top coaches,” he disclosed.
The Games have twice been delayed in as many years due to challenges posed by the pandemic. Initially, the 2020 edition was scheduled to be staged in Hamilton, Bermuda, but a decision was made during the height of the pandemic that the territory could not host it.
In 2021, the meet was expected to be held on the South American mainland with Guyana holding the staging rights, but they subsequently handed that to Bermuda. At that time, however, the English-territory again indicated that it could not stage the meet, thus forcing NACAC to pull the plug on it.
Guyana was then expected to host the event, but that fell through after the South American nation was severely impacted by COVID-19. Unlike most other territories, health officials and the Government held a relaxed approach to mitigate measures, and in the middle of January Jamaica stepped in to host the Games.
Despite those setbacks, President Delaney noted that they are still in contact with athletes, both locally and overseas, and monitoring them to appraise their fitness and preparation levels for selection.
“We reckon that a number of them are of CARIFTA-age and are doing fairly well. And we are also hoping to incorporate those persons, those young athletes from the diaspora as well,” added Delaney.
While speaking with SKNVibes in response to the question of team selection, the President reminded that a number of athletes had already attained the qualifying standards from previously cancelled events and that would be used as one of the selection criteria.
He added: “We would have had our training squad for the Games and we would have kept a record of who are still of the CARIFTA age group…hopefully the development meets that we will be hosting will bring out the new ones.”
This year’s meet is slated for the Easter Week, April 15-18, at the 35,000-capacityJamaica National Track and Field Stadium in Kingston.
