Bermuda: Athletes gear up for CARIFTA Games
EIGHT young track stars have qualified so far for the CARIFTA Games which will be staged in April in the Turks and Caicos ? the first time that island will have hosted the annual competition.
And Bermuda's national track coach, Gerry Swan, said this week that while eight have qualified to represent the island, over a dozen more athletes are still trying to make the qualifying standards to be selected for Bermuda's team.
The Turks and Caicos have just built a new stadium for the Games and Swan said that a "new Mondo track" has been laid as well as other modern facilities.
As of the latest count, 26 nations will be sending their best young athletes to the Games ? namely Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, French Guiana, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Montserrat, Netherlands Antilles, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent/Grenadine, Surinam, Trinidad and Tobago, and the US Virgin Islands.
The meet will be held from April 7-9 and there are expected to be over 500 athletes competing.
Swan said that leading the pack of Bermuda athletes will be sprinter Harold 'Trey' Houston and Arantxa King who made history two years ago when she won the 2005 World Youth long jump as well as the 2005 Junior Pan American long jump.
Last year she also competed in the Commonwealth Games in Australia.
"She has made a strong case for selection for the CARIFTA Games with performances at recent meets. She cleared 6.03 metres in the long jump and 12.34 metres in the triple jump. Arantxa is also a very serious academic student. Her academic grades and good character together with her athletic performances have positioned her to be able to secure a full athletic scholarship from Stanford University (this fall)," he said.
King and Houston are the only Under-20 age group athletes who have achieved their respective performance marks for the Games.
"Sixteen year old Trey, who has tremendous potential and has been identified as a prospect to represent Bermuda at the 2012 Olympic Games, has started the season almost as exciting as his ending to the 2006 season. In the two meets that have been held, Trey has already run his fastest 100 metres to date with an electronic time of 10.84 seconds (equivalent to 10.6 manual time) and has run a couple 21.9 seconds 200 metres races. He is the country's best junior sprinter and during the past 24 months that he has been training with the national squad, his 100 metres time has improved from 11.95 seconds to 10.84 seconds and his 200 metres time from 24.15 to 21.94 seconds. Also, Houston has already qualified for the 2007 IAAF World Youth Championships, to be held in the Czech Republic in July."
Bermuda will also send a host of middle distance runners ? Matthew Spring, Alexis Bean, Ashley Berry and Taylor-Ashley Bean. "All four will be in the Under-17 age group competition. And all four, who also regularly train with the national squad, featured strongly in the domestic cross country season and the recent KPMG Front Street Mile races," said Swan.
Spring will celebrate his 16th birthday tomorrow and has covered the 1500 metres in a time of 4:05.5.
"That was his second fastest time behind his silver medal performance of 4:04.23 at the Junior CAC Championships last July in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad. He is expected, also, to qualify for the IAAF World Youth Championships," said Swan.
The 1500 metres qualifying standard for that competition is 4:03.0 and Swan is optimistic that he will achieve that time before the CARIFTA Games.
"Matthew, who also has been identified as a prospect to represent Bermuda at the 2012 Olympic Games, has improved his 1500 meters time by more than 60 seconds during the past two years. He has surpassed the 2007 CARIFTA mark of 4:25.0."
Spring was also the 3000 metres bronze medallist at last year's CARIFTA Games.
Sisters ? Alexis Bean, 15, and 13-year-old Taylor-Ashley Bean along with 14-year-old Ashley Berry have qualified for the Under-17 girls' 1500 metres.
"Ashley and Alexis both ran personal best marks at last Saturday's track meet with (respective) times of 5:04.9 and 5:05.0 while Taylor-Ashley competed in the 800 and 400 metres events. However, Taylor has run a 1500 metres time of 5:10.9. All three have surpassed the standard of 5:20.0. Taylor-Ashley has run personal best times at the one and two lap races too, with times of 60.7 seconds and 2:28.9," said Swan.
Other Under-17 age group athletes Allison Outerbridge and Jasmine Brunson have qualified, respectively, in the triple jump and long jump.
"Allison has cleared 10.67 metres while Jasmine has a distance of 5.54 metres. Jasmine earned the gold medal in the long jump with a clearance of 5.56 metres at the 2006 Junior CAC Championships," said Swan.
He added: "Apart from Jasmine Brunson, all seven other qualifiers competed at the CARIFTA Games last year in Guadeloupe."
Swan said a number of other athletes are close to the desired performance marks. They, along with others, are expected to seriously challenge for places on the team in the next two meets. In the Under-17 age group, some of those athletes include Jessica Richardson (200m, 400m and 100m), Tare Brangman (high jump), Darico Clark (800m and 400m) and Tre Simons (400m and 800m). Jessica Richardson has run personal best times at the 200 metres on two occasions this year and the 400 metres. Tare Brangman, 13, has registered personal best marks at the high jump and is one increment away from the standard.
Eulannae Douglas (100m and 200m), Deanne Lightbourn (800m and 400m), Aaron Evans (800m), Tristan Francis (100m, 200m and long jump), Sean Trott (5000m), Taijaun Talbot (800) and Kijaun Wilkinson (high and triple jumps) are in the Under-20 age group. Kijaun Wilkinson was a silver medallist at the 2005 CARIFTA Games and new comer Sean Trott has run personal best marks at the 1500 and 5000 metres. Sean's primary event is the 5000 metres.
Five of the qualifiers are members of Bermuda Pacers Track Club while Flyers Track club and Mid Island Track club each has one qualifier.
Bermuda: Athletes gear up for CARIFTA Games 
Turks and Caicos, Haitian team 
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