By Neto Baptiste
Coach of the Antigua and Barbuda Carifta track & field team and a former national athlete, Teddy Daley, said that starting next week, a number of young talented athletes will be enrolled in what he is calling the “Carifta Project,” a programme designed to provide elite athletes with key necessities as they work towards the 2025 junior meet.
“The things that we [coaches] go through, the things that the athletes are lacking and are still able to compete at this level is phenomenal. It shows the kind of talent that we have and some of us have gotten together and we want to add a layer to it. So. I am just asking anybody who wants to sponsor one of the athletes that are going to be in the programme — we are going to look at the elites and put them in the programme. We want to be able to set up showers and changing rooms up at YASCO so they could train in the mornings, get a shower, get an athlete’s breakfast and then go to school, come back the afternoon and train,” he said.
Daley, who acknowledged that athletes are often shortchanged due to the absence of a proper programme and or facilities to adequately prepare, said that with the efforts of other interested coaches and partners, he is hoping to bridge the gap between the lack of proper equipment and or funding.
“Should I keep the money for them to travel to compete so they could have a chance to qualify for World Juniors, or should I buy the starting blocks? It’s the finances and that is why I said earlier that we have taken on what we are referring to as the Carifta project starting next week because this has to change,” he said.
Antigua and Barbuda won four medals at the 51st Carifta Games held in Granada over the Easter weekend. Thirteen-year-old Tyra Fenton won two bronze medals with one in the 400 meters and the other in the 200 meters under-17, while Geolyna Dowdye also won bronze with her medal coming in the 100 meters under-20 girls final.
Chief among them however, was under-17 javelin athlete, Maliek Francis, who won gold with a Carifta Games record of 68.84 meters.
Daley commended all the athletes but said Francis’ performance was a tremendous motivator for all.
“I know at the end of the [first] day they had Jamaica winning two gold and Antigua winning one, but we had won our gold before Jamaica won theirs, just because of the timing of the events.
“We had actually won the first gold medal at the Carifta Games so obviously, we’re walking around in the warm up area with all the coaches from the different islands and so on, and you’re bigging up your chest and letting them know we didn’t come here to play; so you have your back and forth with them all in good, friendly rivalry,” the coach said.
Antigua and Barbuda was represented by 15 athletes at this years Carifta Games.