THIS WEEK IN NACAC
Vol. 3
No. 7
13 February 2022
Digicel sponsors Carifta 2022
The 49th edition of the Carifta Games has received a major sponsorship deal from regional communications giant, Digicel with an infusion of $12m Jamaican Dollars.
At a recent symbolic handing over ceremony, President of the JAAA, Garth Gayle and Chairman of the Local Organising Committee of the 49th Carifta Games, Hon Michael Fennell, received a cheque from Digicel’s Brand Marketing Manager in Jamaica, Reshima Kelly-Williams.
The sponsorship comes at the right time for the LOC as the countdown to the Games shows only a few weeks left and the Carifta Family of athletics federations are in full preparation ahead of their respective trials to select their national representative teams to Jamaica.
Additional good news for the Carifta Family is Digicel’s commitment to having the 49th edition of the Carifta Games brought to their respective countries through SportsMax through broadcast coverage on television as well as online.
Participating teams to this year’s edition of the Carfita Games will all be housed at the University of the West Indies Mona Campus in Kingston, Jamaica. This is the same location used as the Games Village for the IAAF World Junior Championships in 2002 when Usain Bolt, aged 15years and 332 days, set the track and field world alight with a stunning victory in the 200m.
Digicel will, through SportsMax, provides television and online coverage of the event she revealed. While news of the Digicel sponsorship is welcomed news, the LOC and the JAAA are both hopeful that several other Jamaican companies would come forward in support of the world’s most entertain track and field junior competition.
Speaking from the NACAC headquarters in Nassau, The Bahamas, president Mike Sands commented, “Of course NACAC is enthused by the news coming out of Jamaica regarding the sponsorship of Digicel and the latter’s commitment to bring live athletics action across the geographical area occupied by the Carifta Family.”
Sands further stated, “NACAC expects that given the popularity of athletics in Jamaica we certainly expect other businesses to step forward in support of the realization of the 49th edition of the Carifta Games in Jamaica as that country celebrates a year of impressive activities to mare its 60th anniversary of Independence.”
In related news, World Athletics President, Lord Sebastian Coe, is once more expected to grace the annual Carifta Games with his presence. Since taking office in 2015, Lord Coe has been present at every edition of the Carifta Games and remains committed to being at the event well into the future.
Around NACAC
Antigua and Barbuda
Kalique St Jean of Antigua and Barbuda, a 2017 CARIFTA silver medalist, broke the USA Indoor 800m record.
Barbados
Yet another former Carifta medalist has made the news and more Caribbean athletics history. This time it is Barbadian, Aaron Worrell, now training in the USA.
Worrell, competing in the Heptathlon at the Bearcat Invitational in Maryville, Missouri, set a new Barbados national record for the event, having amassed a total of 5411 points, annihilating the former record of 4502 points held by Clifford Brooks, in 1979.
Worrell, a student at the Azusa Pacific University, earned himself third on the US national list with his performance.
El Salvador
Athletes from around El Salvador were fully engaged when the Salvadoran Athletics Federation held the Non-Olympic Track and Jumping Tournament.
The competition, organized at the University of El Salvador (UES) saw participation by 203 athletes from 17 clubs and national teams. There was also athletes from Guatemala and the Paralympic Committee of El Salvador.
Competitors contested 10 non-Olympic test events were held for women and men. Here are the winners
El Salvador is ready!
That’s the word coming from the member federation at a Press Conference held earlier today, Sunday 13 February.
The leadership of the federation convened the Press Conference to signal that the stage is set for their hosting of the II Central American Cross Country and Race Walking Championships next Saturday 19 February and Sunday 20 February respectively.
65 athletes from CADICA member federations from Guatemala, El Salvador, Belize and Nicaragua will participate in the cross country while 34 will contest the walking event.
Guatemala’s London 2012 Olympic medalist Erick Barrondo from Guatemala and El Salvador’s Central American U20 champion, Bryan Méndez, Are among the participants in the race walking while Idelma Delgado and Oscar Aldana of El Salvador, both national champions, are expected to do well before their home crowd.
Guadeloupe – Caribbean Games 2022
The official report of the NACAC-appointed Technical Delegate for the Inaugural Caribbean Games, Esther Maynard, has been completed and submitted.
Maynard, who was one of the several Technical Delegates of the various sports on the Games sport programme in a joint visit to Guadeloupe in January, has expressed satisfaction with the facilities in place for the athletics component of the Games.
There are some equipment which are not at the facilities as yet but she has received guarantees that all will be in place before the Games get started in late June.
NACAC has committed to the Games and expects that, as is the norm, the track and field competition will be the most attractive component of the seven-sport entertainment spectacle.
Martinique
Martiniquan athlete, Aymeric Priam, is once more in the athletics news.
Last year, he raced to become the French U23 100m and 200m champion, a feat he accomplished in Caen last July.
On Saturday 12 February, Aymeric Priam added the French Indoor 60m title for U23 athletes to his increasing list of track and field titles.
While he produced a 6.73 performance in the semi finals to be the best so far for the season, he clocked 6.78 in winning the finals.
Double Carifta gold medalist, Baptiste Thiery, today won the French U23 champion title while competing in Lyon, with a vault of 5.50m.
Baptiste Thiery was a gold medalist at the Summer Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 2018.
St Vincent and the Grenadines
Top Vincentian athlete, Shafiqua Maloney, continues to show fine form in competition. This week Maloney contested the Open 800m and produced a time of 2:01.75.
Maloney’s performance is the best among NCAA 800m female runners thus far for the 2022 season, This is second on the Arkansas all-time list behind her own school record.
Maloney’s 400m split was 51.63.
Also on Saturday, the athletes of the club, High Performance, produced some outstanding performances to take home top honours in Team Athletics St Vincent and the Grenadines’ (TASVG) Annual Relay Classic.
High Performance, which hails from the Leeward side of St Vincent, proved competitive in all of the races contested at the national stadium.
For TASVG, the large crowd in attendance at the Relay Classic was the largest at any competition held at the national stadium since it was officially opened in November 2020. Officials of the member federation feels confident that when completed, the national stadium may well be the cause for a major increase in interest, participation and performances in athletics in St Vincent and the Grenadines.
The coaches are in high expectation that the new Kids Athletics programme will add further expansion in participation around the country, with many young children anxious to get their opportunity to participate in the sport at the national stadium.
Several athletes have already received their gift packages from TASVG, which contained a pair of spikes, a water bottle and a shoe bag, all part of the support to the sport that has been organized by Jabari Khensu and his father, Yemi. Several of the athletes who competed in Saturday’s Relay Classic were sporting their newly acquired spikes.
Trinidad and Tobago
Officials of the NAAATT joined their counterparts in other sports in Trinidad and Tobago yesterday, in a Sports Management workshop organized by First Citizen’s Bank.
NAAATT hosted its second Track and Field preparation meet since the Government’s official announcement that sporting activity can once more take place across the nation.
At the first preparation meet, held two weeks ago, 10 athletes made the Carifta qualifying standard set by the NAAATT.
Meanwhile, 2012 Olympic Javelin gold medalist, Keshorn Walcott, was expected to open his 2022 season in Tobago today.
Keith Joseph
P.O. Box 680, Kingstown, St Vincent and the Grenadines
Tel: (784) 457 9062 (H); (784) 457 2970 (O)
