Antigua & Barbuda finishes strong at Carifta Games

A silver medal from middle and long distance runner, Kalique St Jean, and a bronze from sprinter Joella Lloyd, carried Antigua & Barbuda’s medal count at the 2017 FLOW Carifta Games to five on the final day of competition at the Curacao National Stadium on Monday.
St Jean clocked 16 minutes and 02.77 seconds to finish second in the Boys 5000 meters Under-20 event, finishing less than a second behind of Dominic Dyer (15:55.02) of the Cayman Islands.
Meanwhile, Lloyd clocked 24.01 to finish third in the Under-18 Girls 200 metres dash and claim bronze, adding to the silver medal she won in the 100 metres in 11.66 seconds on Saturday.
She was bettered by Jamaica’s Michae Harriott and Devine Parker in the 200 metres finals.
Coach of the team, Jamille Nelson said that having surpassed the three bronze won during last year’s Carifta Games indicates there has been improvement over the 12 months.
“It was my prediction coming into the meet that we would have gotten at least five medals and we did get at least five. We certainly expected that Coull Graham, in terms of the situation in the 200 and the false start in the 100, would have done better because those were two other medals we were banking on and also the girls relay, the 4×1, they ended fourth and with the boys dropping the baton in the 4×1.
“Despite those mishaps, we still ended with five medals and it was sort of what we came here with in terms of expectation wise,” he said.
Long jumper Sheldon Noble who won silver and triple jumper Taeco O’Garro who covered a distance of 14.56 metres to finish third in the boys’ under-18 championships for bronze, won the country’s other medals.
Nelson said the goal is to keep the current crop of athletes active throughout the rest of the year.
“There was a meeting here [in Curacao] at the congress and it was decided that the Leeward Islands Championships would be, basically a whole festival in Tortola and it will be the youth, junior and senior championships over a three-day period in June so they have that to look forward to,” the coach said.
“There is also World Youths this year in Kenya and the week after there is Commonwealth youth in the Bahamas. There is Pan American junior championships in Peru also in July. Next weekend, a team should be going to St. Martin while there will be a meet in Martinique,” he added.
Meanwhile, in swimming, Noah Mascoll-Gomes picked up a bronze medal in the 100 metres freestyle on Monday to add to his silver medal in the 200 metres butterfly. Swimming climaxes on Tuesday with the open water contest.