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Monday, February 17, 2020

Three more athletes qualify for CARIFTA Games

Jasmine Knowles will be back to defend her CARIFTA title in the under-20 girls 800 meters, qualifying over the weekend at the 14th Annual Diana Lynn Thompson Track and Field Classic. She turned in a qualifying time of 2:11.56. FILE

A trio of local athletes qualified for the 49th CARIFTA Games at the 14th Annual Diana Lynn Thompson Track and Field Classic on Saturday, joining the 13 others who had previously done so.

In the sprints, Jeremiah Adderley has joined the list, winning the under-17 boys 100 meters (m) in 11 seconds flat at the original Thomas A. Robinson Track and Field Stadium on Saturday, and going under the CARIFTA qualifying time of 11.02 seconds. Adderley, who competes for the Development of Technique, Speed and Power (DTSP) Wolf Pack Track Club, still has two years remaining in the under-17 division.

He gives The Bahamas two qualifiers in the under-17 boys short sprints. St. John’s standout Carlos Brown has set the pace, running a blazing 10.89 seconds at the DTSP Wolf Pack/Rose Cleare Track Classic three weeks ago. Brown opted to run the 200m on Saturday, and Adderley took advantage of the field in the 100m in his absence.

Finishing second behind Adderley in the 100m on Saturday was Michael Cartwright of Fast Forward Athletics. He was timed in 11.25 seconds. Jonathan Fowler of the Star Trackers Track and Field Club ran a similar time but had to settle for third.

Also qualifying for the junior regional meet over the weekend was Brandon Hutcheson in the under-17 boys triple jump, leaping 14:05m (46’ 1-1/4”). The qualifying mark for CARIFTA is 13.88m (45’ 6-1/2”). Finishing second behind Hutcheson in that event on Saturday was Curtis Pride of Pride Athletics. Pride had a best jump of 12.07m (39’ 7-1/4”).

The final qualifier on Saturday was the CARIFTA Champion from a year ago in the under-20 girls 800m. Jasmine Knowles, who instantly rose to fame on the junior athletics scene a year ago when she stunned the entire region by taking gold in the under-20 girls 800m at CARIFTA, will look to repeat as champion this year in Hamilton, Bermuda.

Knowles ran a personal best time of 2:09.49 for the CARIFTA title in George Town, Cayman Islands, last year. On Saturday, she was about two seconds slower, running 2:11.56 but still managed to dip below the CARIFTA qualifying time of 2:13.05. Rowlia Joseph from the Roadrunners finished second to Knowles on Saturday, running 2:25.93, and Elanna Mackey, representing the University of The Bahamas (UB) Mingoes, was third in 2:31.03.

Previously qualifying this season was Shaunece Miller in the under 17-girls high jump. The bronze medalist from last year’s CARIFTA Games leapt 1.63m (5’ 4”) at the DTSP Wolf Pack/Rose Cleare Classic, surpassing the qualifying standard of 1.62m (5’ 3-3/4”). She cleared 1.68m (5’ 6”) for the bronze at last year’s CARIFTA.

There are three additional qualifiers in the under-17 boys division – all in the field events.

There are a couple of qualifiers in the high jump with Stephan Farquharson leaping 1.95m (6’ 4-3/4”) at the DTSP Wolf Pack/Rose Cleare Classic and Dondre Saunders joining him with a leap of 1.93m (6’ 4”). They finished first and second in that event respectively. The only other qualifier in the under-17 boys division is Nathaniel Zervos in the javelin. He had a winning toss of 53.59m (175’ 10”) at the T-Bird Flyers Track and Field Classic in January. Zervos came back three weeks after that throw and had a winning toss of 52.62m (172’ 7”) at the 17th Star Performers Track and Field Classic. The qualifying mark for CARIFTA is 50.65m (166’ 2”).

In the under-20 girls division, University of Kentucky (UK) freshman Megan Moss has qualified in the 400m, running 53.67 seconds at the Jim Green Invitational in Lexington, Kentucky, in January. Since then, she has lowered her personal best time to 52.58 seconds indoors, done at the Tiger Paw Invitational in Clemson, South Carolina, this past weekend. The qualifying time for CARIFTA is 54.76 seconds.

Anthaya Charlton has qualified in the under-20 girls long jump, leaping 5.66m (18’ 7”) at the DTSP Wolf Pack/Rose Cleare Track Classic. The CARIFTA Champion from the under-17 division a year ago has since improved her season’s best leap to 5.79m (19’), done for second place at the UK High School Invitational this past weekend. The qualifying mark for CARIFTA is 5.66m.

Rhema Otabor will be back to defend her CARIFTA title in the under-20 girls javelin. She has a season’s best toss of 47.95m (157’ 4”), done at the T-Bird Flyers Track and Field Classic. The qualifying mark for CARIFTA is 38.39m (125’ 11”). She had a winning toss of 43.07m (141’ 3”) at last year’s CARIFTA Games.

In the under-20 boys division, Shaun Miller will be back to defend his CARIFTA title in the high jump. He had a winning leap of 2.08m (6’ 9-3/4”) at the Simmons-Harvey Big Ten Invitational in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in January. Miller had a winning jump of 2.16m (7’ 1”) at last year’s CARIFTA Games, and the qualifying mark this year is 2m flat (6’ 6-3/4”). Valley City State University freshman Travis Joseph has also qualified for CARIFTA in the under-20 boys high Jump, leaping 2.05m (6’ 8-3/4”) at the North Dakota State Bison Open in Fargo, North Dakota, a week ago.

A couple of Bahamian athletes have qualified in the under-20 boys javelin. They are the under-17 CARIFTA champions from a year ago, Keyshawn Strachan and Michaelangelo Bullard, who finished fourth in the under-20 boys division. Strachan has a season’s and personal best throw of 63.76m (209’ 2”) that he did at the T-Bird Flyers Track and Field Classic. Bullard qualified at the DTSP Wolf Pack/Rose Cleare Classic, turning in a toss of 61.12m (200’ 6-1/4”). The qualifying mark for CARIFTA is 60.94m (199’ 11”).

Iowa Central Community College freshman Tristen Hanna has qualified for CARIFTA in the open pole vault, turning in a leap of 3.50m (11’ 5-3/4”) at the Ted Nelson Classic in Mankato, Minnesota, about a week ago. The qualifying mark is 3.27m (10’ 8-3/4”).

Finally, Grand Bahamian Terrance Jones, the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations’ (BAAA) Junior Athlete of the Year a year ago and CARIFTA Champion in the under-20 boys 400m, has qualified for this year’s CARIFTA Games in the under-20 boys 200m. In his first 200m race of the season, he ran 21.03 seconds at the T-Bird Flyers Track and Field Classic to qualify for the CARIFTA Games. The qualifying time is 21.15 seconds.

There were many other impressive performances at the 14th Annual Diana Lynn Thompson Track and Field Classic on Saturday as junior athletes look to continue their impressive seasons and join the list of qualifiers.

The 49th CARIFTA Games is set for the Easter holiday weekend, April 10-13, in Hamilton, Bermuda.

The post Three more athletes qualify for CARIFTA Games appeared first on The Nassau Guardian.



source https://thenassauguardian.com/2020/02/17/three-more-athletes-qualify-for-carifta-games/

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