By Neto Baptiste
Most of the country’s top senior athletes have confirmed that they will compete at this year’s National Track & Field Championships slated for June 24-25.
This is according to meet director and a member of the Antigua and Barbuda Athletics Association (ABAA), Kesswin Anthony, who said that with the exception of female sprinter Joella Lloyd, all of the other major athletes have indicated that they will compete.
“Cejhae has confirmed he will be returning, Sheldon Noble is already here and Taeco O’Garro has confirmed, but sadly to say, Joella will not be competing. I know her season ended earlier up in the year when she developed an injury, and the decision from the school was to just go ahead and do rehabilitation towards next season. We have Soniya Jones who is home also and Darion Skerritt. There is Full Stride Track Club out of Anguilla, Track Alliance out of Montserrat and Bio Mechanics out of St Vincent,” he said.
Anthony, who is also a track & field coach, said the event will be structured slightly differently this year due to a decline in numbers in the senior department.
“We’re doing it a bit different this year where we will be going up to the under-15 category this year, and the under-17s now will make up that senior category with the under-20s and the open. The reason for that is because we don’t have the requisite number of senior athletes to make up the numbers where we are trying to do the heats and the final, so we have the under-15s who will do an invitational race or timed final for them and then we go into the seniors,” he said.
Meanwhile, another member of the planning committee, Hughan Daley, highlighted the newly introduced VIP section.
“We have a new sponsor which is Premier Beverages, and we are collaborating with them to have a VIP section and it is going really good, but we are only going to have it for one day since it’s a test run, but once you come and you purchase your ticket then you will have a fantabulous time,” he said.
The event will be held at the country’s lone track & field facility, the YASCO Sports Complex.