Three medals for A&B at NACAC Age Group

Two Antiguan athletes stamped their authority at this year’s North American, Central American and Caribbean (NACAC) Age Group Championships held at the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Trinidad over the weekend.
Sprinter Alyssa Dyett led the way with two medals, winning gold in the girls 60 meters dash and bronze in the long jump.
Dyett clocked 8.21 seconds to beat Trinidad & Tobago’s Janae De Gannes who clocked 8.27 seconds and BVI’s Akeela McMaster who clocked 8.31 seconds to finish second and third respectively in the 60 meters event.
The Antiguan then returned to finish third in the long jump with a distance of 4.41 meters which placed her just behind of Jamaica’s Omarian Constable in second with a leap of 4.66 meters and Barbados’ Samiya Dell who won gold with a jump of 4.85 meters.
Ajani Daley, Antigua’s other medalist, posted a time of 7.99 seconds to finish third in the 60 meters dash.
He finished behind of St Vincent and the Grenadines’ Andrew Mapp who clocked 7.88 seconds and Anaya West of Bermuda who snatched silver in 7.99 seconds.
One member of the coaching staff and former national athlete, Heather Samuel-Daley, commended all of the athletes for their performances in Trinidad.
“They would have performed here well under our circumstance and they went down to Trinidad and, in my estimation, did a very good job. Yes, we only had three medals and an awardee because they do award the top eight. We had three medalists where Alyssa would have won the gold medal in the 60 meters and bronze in the long jump and Ajani Daley won bronze in the 60 meters,” she said.
“We also had Mia McIntosh who finished eighth in the 800 meters so, overall, the performances were good,” she added
The Carifta silver medalist went on to highlight that the meet required those athletes falling in the under-15 category to compete in at least seven events (heptathlon) whole those in the under-13 category were required to feature in at least five events (pentathlon).
The athletes, she said, must be commended for the way they adjusted.
“In some cases they were doing events for the very first time and I want to commend them very highly for at least, attempting to do these events that they are not accustomed to doing here in Antigua so they must be commended for that,” Samuel-Daley said.
The meet quality, Samuel-Daley added, was at its usual high standard.
“Now that we have included North America, obviously it [the standard] is going to improve. I think, overall, what we are looking at, are athletes we are hoping to meet the Carifta standard in the next couple of years. For the under-15s, they will be looking to Carifta next year but for the under-13s, in the next two or three years, they will be looking to at least represent their various countries at the Carifta level so the standard is usually pretty good,” the former athlete said.
A total of eight athletes represented Antigua and Barbuda in Trinidad.