BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - THE twin-island Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis has become known for producing some great sprinters, with its greatest export being the 2003 World Champion Kim Collins.
With Collins now in his twilight years and already declaring never to represent the Federation again at international competition, the question on every Kittitian and Nevisian mind is, “Who will be the next Kim Collins?”
Antoine Adams, Brijesh Lawrence, Jason Rogers and Lestrod Roland have already proven themselves on a global scale competing against top opposition. Therefore, this article will focus on locally-based sprinters who are proving their worth on the local scene.
In an exclusive interview with SKNVibes, Public Relations Officer of the St. Kitts-Nevis Amateur Athletic Association (SKNAAA), Evris Huggins highlighted some of the young outstanding sprinters in the Federation and proclaimed that “there is a lot to look forward to”.
“We have a lot of athletes to keep our eyes on. For certain, Alistair Clarke is one we are looking at. He should not be any stranger in the circuit, because he and Jason (Rogers) practically dominated the junior scene during their junior eligibility.
“We also have Rico Gumbs who is threatening the national junior records in the 100 meters and 200 metres. He has eclipsed the records hand-timed and has been consistently running 21: 0 in the 200 metres.”
He continued: “Warren Hazel, who is another junior athlete and has two more years as a junior, is consistently breaking the sub-50 second barrier in the 400 metres and has also posted a 21:1 seconds in the 200 metres, but that was hand-timed.”
Huggins also made mention of a 14-year-old, who has opened many eyes, and suggested that he might just be one of the fastest young athletes in the Federation.
“There is a youngster from Keys named Wayne Mathew, who at age 14 is running 10.7 in the 100 metres and 22.4 in the 200 metres. He may very well be one of the fastest youths we have ever had. So when we are talking about generation next sprinters, these are the people we are to look for.
“Sadiki Tyson dominated the Intermediate Interschool Championship in 2013. We also have Keshorn Blackman who represented The Immaculate Conception Catholic School and showed up at one or two of the development meets and proved himself and surprised a lot of persons.
“There are lots more but those are some of the names that come to mind when you talk about future sprinters in St. Kitts-Nevis.”
Huggins also disclosed what the Association is doing to ensure that it controls the talent of these young sprinters.
“They are part of the Development Squad, but one of the initiatives that have been undertaken by the Coaches Association through the Academy Programme is that they are in the process of talent searching.
“The talent searching is an initiative so that they are able to identify the athletes who we think are necessary for us to have in camp in an elite programme, to create high performances from them similar to the era of the Tandra Ponteen, Virgil Hodge, Melville Rogers and those athletes.
“So, we have basically gone back to the drawing board trying to identifying these people.”
He also stated that they are focused on developing their coaches in the Federation.
“One of the things that we hope to continue to develop however is our Coaching Programme. We are working week after week doing a lot of training.”
