TASVG to send 12 to Junior CARIFTA track and field championships

Team Athletics SVG has selected a 12-member team to represent St Vincent and the Grenadines at this year’s FLOW Junior CARIFTA track and field championships, set for the Thomas A Robinson Stadium, New Providence, The Bahamas, from March 30 to April 2.

The team is composed of seven females and five males.

The Under-20 females are Shaffiqua Maloney, Daria Matthias, Zita Vincent, Krystal Foster, Anicea Richards and Tamara Woodley, with Ulanda Lewis, being the lone Under-17 female athlete selected.

This will be a first for Richards and Lewis at this level.

Desroy Jordan and Yonick Murray are the two male Under-20 selectees, while Handal Roban, Jevonie Lavia and Uroy Ryan make up the Under-17 males.

All of the male competitors are making their debut at the championships

 The team’s coach is Rawlson Morgan and the chaperone is Chantel Legair.

Maloney, who is based in the USA, will contest the 200m, 400m and 4 x 400m, with Matthias listed for the 100m and 200m and Vincent, the 800m, 1500m and 4 x 400m.

The lone female field event athlete, Krystal Forster, will compete in the shot put and discus; Richards – the 4 x 400m, Woodley – 800m and 4 x 400m and Lewis, the 100m and 200m.

Meanwhile, Jordan is down to run the 800m and 1500m, Murray – the 400m, Roban – the 400m and 800m and Ryan and Lavia – the high jump.

This year’s St Vincent and the Grenadines team represents a far cry from 2017, when Zita Vincent was the lone representative in the championships, which were held In Curacao.

However, the reason for the rise in numbers is the lowering of the standards put down by Team Athletics SV; hence, many were able to qualify on that basis.

The last time St Vincent and the Grenadines medalled at the Junior CARIFTA track and field championships was 2015 in St Kitts, when Reuberth Boyde gained a silver in the Under-20 male 200m.

The 47th edition of the Junior CARIFTA championships is the eighth to be hosted by The Bahamas, which makes it the most prolific host.

The Bahamas first hosted the CARIFTA Games in 1976, in Nassau and it returned there in 1978.

They hosted the games twice in the 1980s (1981 and 1984), with the other hostings in 1992, 2002 and in 2013.