2 weeks Ago
For the first time in 22 years, the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Port of Spain will be the assembly point for the best junior athletes in the region. Those who turn up at the Crawford Stadium today, tomorrow and Monday for the 2025 Carifta Games will be treated to a track and field festival like no other. Talent abounds in the region, and collegiate scouts from the United States are here in large numbers, hoping to recruit future Olympic champions.
Many stars were born at the Carifta Games. The supplement published in yesterday’s Express put the spotlight on many of those emerging talents, including the incomparable Usain St Leo Bolt. The most memorable Bolt Carifta moment came at the 2004 Games, in Bermuda, where he broke the world junior record in the boys’ under-20 200 metres final, scorching the track in a jaw-dropping 19.
93 seconds. The Jamaican sensation dominated the half-lap race, finishing more than a second faster than silver medallist Daniel Bailey of Antigua and Barbuda. Trinidad and Tobago also experienced the Bolt Carifta magic.
At the 2003 Games, fans at the Crawford Stadium were in awe as the then-16-year-old relegated his rivals to battles for silver in the boys’ under-20 200m and 400m finals. There was star power for T&T, too, Darrel Brown bolting to boys’ under-20 100m gold. Like Bolt, Brown went on to senior success.
In fact, Brown was a World Championship medallist later in 2003, seizing silver in Paris, behind St Kitts and Nevis sprinter Kim Collins, in the men’s 100m dash. Rhonda Watkins was also a standout for T&T at Carifta 2003. Spurred on by the home fans, Watkins recorded an impressive girls’ under-17 jumps double, winning the high with a 1.
73 metres clearance and the long with a 5.79m leap. Carlan Arthur in the boys’ under-20 1500m, girls’ under-20 triple jumper Sheron Mark, and boys’ under-17 half-miler Jamaal James were champions as well as T&T ended the Games with six gold medals, 12 silver and ten bronze for second spot, behind Jamaica.
Cuquie Melville earned one of T&T’s bronze medals, the Tobago athlete finishing third in the girls’ pentathlon. Well, 22 years later, Melville is back on the T&T team, but this time as manager, overseeing the affairs of the 76 athletes assigned with the responsibility of flying the “Red, White and Black” over the next three days. In yesterday’s Express sports lead, headlined “Call to support”, Melville made an appeal to the nation to give Team TTO “strong home crowd support”.
The Carifta Aquatic Championships will also be staged here in T&T, starting today, and the country’s young swim stars would also be hoping for the cheers of partisan home fans as they bid for honours in the pool. The formalities were taken care of in a joint-opening ceremony at the Crawford Stadium yesterday. Now, it’s time for action on the track, in the field, and in the pool as the best of T&T takes on the region.
Let the Games begin!.
