BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - AN official from St. Kitts and Nevis Amateur Athletic Association (SKNAAA) has predicted that the St. Kitts-Nevis relay team is a threat to other teams in winning the gold medal at next month’s International Association Athletic Federation (IAAF) World Championships.
In an interview with SKNVibes, the Public Relations Officer of the SKNAAA, Evris Huggins, made the bold statement when asked about his confidence in the team defending its bronze medal won at the 2011 edition of the Games held in South Korea last year.
“I am confident that the team has the potential to threaten the gold medal at the World Championships, because the athletes have proven to be running faster in their individual events. And I believe they have not peaked in their performances for the year.”
Huggins also stated that the Association has high hopes in the athletes at upcoming games.
“Our expectations are very high. Our relay boys have been the pinnacle of our success on the global level for the past two years and one can only expect with an improvement in the performances of sprinters like Jason Rogers, Antione Adams, Allistar Clarke, who is up and coming. We think that the team has a lot of depth and we think that the chemistry is really strong; the guys get along like brothers and we also think that they are very coachable.”
Huggins noted Adams and Rogers are on the rise to world class status.
“We have a lot of expectations for Antoine Adams and Jason Rogers and, of course, Antoine’s performance at the CAC games is a testament to his true talent and his development into an elite athlete.
“Jason Rogers in another success story coming out of the junior circuit, now a senior, and is running times that will consider him to be an elite athlete. The 10.01 seconds is still one of the fastest times for the year by any athlete in the world, so we expect much more out of him.”
He added that along with the relay team, three individual have also qualified for the Games.
“We have in the 100 metres ‘A’ Standard, Jason Rogers and Antoine Adams. In the 200 metres we have Antoine Adams with an ‘A’ qualifier and Lestrod Roland ‘B’. And we have the 4x100m men when we broke the National Record with the 38.41 in the London Olympics.”
Huggins also highlighted some of the top achievements so far for the year.
“We remain optimistic and we have high expectations. We looked at the track records that have been set for 2013. We have had a total of six senior records for the year and a total of three junior records and we also have other records under threat.
“This year has really gone down to be one of the greatest years in athletics. We are very happy about it and it is against that backdrop we can only expect greater things come World Championship athletics in Moscow.”
The SKNAAA announced on Wednesday (Jul. 10) the six athletes and two officials selected to represent the Federation at the IAAF World Championships in Moscow, Russia, slated for August 10–18.
The six athletes are Antoine Adams (100m, 200m, 4X100m Relay), Jason Rogers (100m, 4X100m Relay), Lestrod Roland (200m, 4X100m Relay) Brijesh Lawrence (4X100m Relay), Allistar Clarke (4X100m Relay) and Delwayne Delaney (4X100m Relay).
The team will be headed by Iston Williams while Lonzo Wilkison was appointed head coach.
Commenting on the team’s selection, SKNAAA President Glenville Jeffers said, “I am very pleased with the selections made. It is a good mix of experience and young talent and the chemistry between them is great, which is vital in meets like the upcoming World Championships.
“We are expecting outstanding performances in the sprints. The Executive has confidence in the relay team returning to the finals.”
