BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - THE 2013 Track and Field Season has ended and it had seen athletes from St. Kitts and Nevis attaining remarkable achievements.
The season stated with each school in the Federation participating in their individual sports day before moving into the National Primary and Secondary Schools’ meets.
The season moved on to feature the senior athletes in local regional and international meets.
In an interview with SKNVibes, Public Relations Officer of the St. Kitts-Nevis Amateur Athletic Association, Evris Huggins said that from a performance and administrative perspective they had an exceptional track year.
“From a performance and administration perspective, we had an excellent year and it was evident in the performance by the athletes and our administrators that we were able to accomplish and surpass a number of things.”
He added that throughout the 2013 Season 12 national senior and junior records that were eclipsed and the etching of the Federation’s name at a major regional meet.
“We had 12 national senior and junior records being broken which was beyond our expectation. We had six national junior records along with six national senior records. We were also able to mark our name at championships such as the Pan American Junior Championships, where we had our first female medallist in any event and the second person to win a Pan American Junior medal in Omhunique Browne.”
Huggins believes that the Federation’s status as a track and field nation was strengthened with the progress shown in the field events and the development shown by female athletes.
“We also strengthened our status as a young athletic nation that growing in the field event. We saw outstanding performances in the CARIFTA Games from athletes like Krystal Liburd and Adrian Williams who were able to secure medals in their respective field events.
“We see a comeback with the females and it was testament when we had a contingency of five athletes attending the World Junior Championship; we had two females representing the Federation.”
He also disclosed the Association’s exultation with what was achieved in 2013 and declared it an outstanding year.
“In terms of performances, we were elated and we were happy to learn that we were able to secure that amount of records. We are not talking about records that were a year or two years old. We are talking about records that were held for decades in different events. And for that we think that 2013 was an outstanding year for athletics.”
Huggins was asked what he felt was the greatest achievement during the season but he was reluctant to mention any particular occurrence. He however singled out one moment that would go down in the Track and Field history of the Federation.
“I don’t think there is any one accomplishment that we can highlight as the greatest achievement. At our National Invitational and Club Championships, it was the first time that people from St. Kitts and Nevis were able to see a sub-10.1 performance with the naked eye.
“I think that moment at the Stadium where two of our up and coming elite athletes Antoine Adams and Jason Rogers were able to run an identical time in the 100 metres, and Antoine later being declared the champion while also securing a Stadium record.
“I think that was a moment for track and field in our Federation. I think that was one of the single most outstanding highlights in 2013.”
Huggins also made mention on an administrative achievement.
“The body voted three additional clubs moved from provisional membership to full membership. They are the Fast Twitch Track Club, Gladiators Track Club and Outa Limit Track Club. We now have nine clubs under the SKNAAA, which is the largest amount of clubs we ever had under this executive.”
He also stated that the season would end with the road relays and disclosed that the Association is trying to organise an awards dinner.
“We have the road relays coming up and we are also still trying to pull off an awards dinner. We think it time to get something off the ground and running to award athletes.”
Huggins also spoke of how the SKNAAA could build on 2013.
“One of the things that we closed out within 2013, is that we were able to run a consistent national development squad and a national academy simultaneously. We were able to foster a number of grassroots talent and help them to becoming greater athletes. The amount of personal best and national records that we saw, we want to accredit them to work that was invested in the programme.”
This season was also a sad year for the SKNAAA, as it lost two Javelin throwers in female national record holder Tesrill Nisbett and the defending male national champion J’anthon Silliday.
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