NACAC set for exciting 2022

As we embark on a new season, let’s review a successful 2021 for the North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletic Association (NACAC).

The election of Jamaica’s sprint star Elaine Thompson-Herah as the AIPS (International Sports Press Association) Best Female Athlete of 2021 and World Female Athlete of the Year at the World Athletics Awards 2021 capped a magnificent year for the sport of athletics in the region. Thompson-Herah retained her Olympic 100 and 200 meters (m) titles in Tokyo, Japan, and added a third gold medal in the 4x100m relay. She also ran world-leading times of 10.54 and 21.53 seconds over 100 and 200m respectively, moving to second on the world all-time list for each discipline.

Thompson-Herah paved the way for 12 other individual champions from the NACAC area at Tokyo 2020 Olympics held in 2021. Among the 12 were USA’s Sydney McLaughlin and Ryan Crouser, who smashed the world record in their respective events.

McLaughlin, 22, ran a mind-blowing 51.46 seconds in the 400m hurdles final in Tokyo, in repeat of another epic battle between her and her countrywoman and former world record holder Dalilah Muhammad, who finished a close second in 51.58, well inside the previous world record of 51.90 set by McLaughlin at the US Olympic Trials a few months earlier.

Crouser, who erased the 21-year-old world record in the men’s shot put with 23.37m (76’ 8”) effort at the US Olympic Trials in June, capped off his best season ever with the Olympic gold. With all six tosses over 22.50m (73’ 9-1/4”), he sealed the Olympic title with a toss of 23.30m (76’ 5-1/4”).

Another superlative performance came in the decathlon. Canada’s Damian Warner became the fourth man in history to break the 9,000-point barrier en route to the Olympic gold. His effort earned him the Best Sportsperson of the Year title in his country.

Four events signaled the NACAC prowess at Tokyo 2020. Thompson-Herah led a Jamaican sweep in the women’s 100m, joined by two-time Olympic Champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Shericka Jackson.

In the women’s 400m, The Bahamas’ gold medallist Shaunae Miller-Uibo was flanked by the Dominican Republic’s Marileidy Paulino and the USA’s Allyson Felix on the podium. Felix capped a five-games Olympic campaign with 11 medals, including the individual bronze and 4x400m relay gold. Seven of the eight finalists in the women’s 400m were from the NACAC area.

Three other women completed a medal sweep for NACAC – this feat was achieved in the women’s 100m hurdles. The athletes were Puerto Rico’s Jasmine Camacho-Quinn, her country’s first Olympic gold medallist in athletics, USA’s world record holder Kendra Harrison, and Jamaica’s Megan Tapper.

The male sprint hurdles also delivered a medal sweep to the NACAC area. Jamaica’s Hansle Parchment (13.04), USA’s World Champion Grant Holloway (13.09), and another Jamaican, Ronald Levy (13.10), finished one-two-three.

NACAC’s other individual Olympic Champions were Canada’s Andre De Grasse in the 200m, taking his Olympic medal tally to six; The Bahamas’ Steven Gardiner in the 400m; and the USA’s Valarie Allman in the women’s discus.

Jamaica’s Briana Williams, Thompson-Herah, Fraser-Pryce and Jackson ran 41.02 seconds, the second-fastest time ever, for gold in the 4x100m relay.

Athing Mu, just 19, had an amazing 800m performance which earned her the Olympic gold medal in an American record and world leading time of 1:55.21. She was fittingly rewarded with the World Athletics Female Rising Star Award. The teenager improved her record to 1:55.04 weeks later and set the World U20 indoor record of 1:58.40.

The USA’s McLaughlin, Felix, Muhammad and Mu combined their efforts to take the 4x400m gold in 3:16.85, the sixth-fastest time in history and the quickest in 28 years.

Only a world record by Norway’s Karsten Warholm (45.94), winner of the Male Athlete of the Year at the World Athletics Awards 2021, deprived the USA’s Rai Benjamin of the Olympic gold in the 400m hurdles. Benjamin ran 46.17 seconds, the second-fastest time ever in the event.

Fourth at the Olympics, Erriyon Knighton broke Usain Bolt’s World U20 200m record with a 19.84 clocking at the Olympic Trials. The 17-year-old American was rewarded with the Male Rising Star Award by World Athletics.

NACAC received other World Athletics awards: the Member Federation Award to Costa Rica, host to the NACAC U18 and U23 Championships; and the Coaching Achievement Award to the USA’s Bobby Kersee. Under Kersee’s guidance, Felix became the most decorated female track and field Olympian in history, while training partner McLaughlin twice broke the 400m hurdles world record and claimed Olympic gold in the discipline.

NACAC’s Competitions Director, former General Secretary and longstanding technical official Michael Serralta received the World Athletics Veteran Pin, and NBC’s Peter Diamond was honored with the President’s Award.

The 2022 season will have a special feature as the World Athletics Championships will be held, for the first time in history, in the United States. Eugene, Oregon will welcome the planet’s best athletes for the July 15-24 meet.

After a two-year hiatus, the CARIFTA Games are scheduled for Kingston, Jamaica, from April 16-18.

For the English-speaking Caribbean nations and Canada, the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England, between August 2 and 7, will also be a major feature.

The World Athletics Continental Tour 2022 will have multiple stops in the NACAC area as the organization is introducing its own NACAC circuit under the leadership of the NACAC Circuit Working Group. A total of six US cities will be part of the World Athletics Indoor Tour.

For the full NACAC calendar, interested persons are asked to please visit the website https://ift.tt/3FXlmH4.

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