By Neto Baptiste
National youth sprinter, LaNica Locker, said the road to her historic bronze medal at the recently concluded Commonwealth Youth Games was not an easy one.
Speaking with Observer media following her 200 meters bronze in Trinidad, the 17-year-old former Ottos Comprehensive School (OCS) student said she pushed through “pain and aches” to accomplish the feat.
“I am really pleased to say that I have brought home a historic medal for my country. It wasn’t easy but I pushed through. I had a lot of headaches, had a lot of aches and pains, but I pushed through to represent my country to the best of my ability,” she said.
Locker, last Thursday, clocked 23.56 seconds to claim bronze in the 200 Meters Girls’ Under-18 Final, becoming the first female athlete from Antigua and Barbuda to medal at the meet.
Coach of the team and former national record holder in both the 100 and 200 meters, Heather Samuel-Daley, commended Locker for the achievement, hailing it as a significant accomplishment for Antigua and Barbuda on a day when two other Antiguan women also achieved a historic feat by journeying into space.
“Historic in the fact that she is now the first female [from Antigua] to win a medal at the Commonwealth Games and a very historic day for Antigua as well because we had to females riding to outer space, so it was a very historic day for Antigua all around,” she said.
“I just want to say how proud I am of LaNica because she would have gone through the entire season with some ups and downs, couldn’t train for a couple of weeks, and just a month she didn’t train leading into Inter-schools and so on, and just prior to Carifta she was just getting over an injury, and then to end the season like this is very commendable,” the coach added.
Daley also commended all the other athletes for their efforts at the highly competitive meet.
“I think Geolyna would have ran a really good race in the final of the 100 meters to finish fourth and Locker finished fifth in that race, but I think it was a commendable performance by both of the young ladies. Kasiya Daley, in the 100 male, finished seventh and Dwayne could not go, but made the final and because of the new World Athletics rules, he was replaced in the final by the next best person, but I think the performances were really good in the 100. I think we were one of the only countries that had four finalists and that’s a very commendable achievement to have,” she said.
Antigua and Barbuda’s Tahir Walsh won 100 meters gold and 200 meters silver at the 2011 instalment of the games held in India, while in 2017, Sheldon Noble won gold in the long jump.
