The 41st Carifta Games showcasing some of the Caribbean’s best track and field talents begin tomorrow in Bermuda. Five hundred and fifty athletes from 26 countries are slated to compete in a carnival-like atmosphere at the National Sports Centre, and Bermuda Track and Field Association President Donna Watson has been dead set on making Carifta 2012 a memorable one. This is the fourth time that the tourist destination is hosting the event, which they first staged in 1975 and again in 1980 and 2004.
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Keshorn Walcott
Sportsman photo
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While the host team will number 55, dominant squads Jamaica and Bermuda will be there as forces in large numbers, with the 70-strong Bahamians promising to give perennial champion Jamaica a run for its money.
The Jamaica-Bahamas rivalry aside, there are names in the 45-member Trinidad and Tobago camp that are high on the radar. One such person on whom the stakes are high is Under-20 javelin thrower Keshorn Walcott, the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Junior record holder, who capped off last season with a record 75.77 meters, and at the recent (March 30) Falcon Games in Trinidad threw a massive 77.53 to eclipse that mark. The 19-yr-old Walcott is going for a hat-trick this weekend.
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Spann
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Richards
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Cedenio
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Farinha
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On the track there is Machel Cedenio who won the Under-17 Boys 200m–400m double at last year’s Games in Jamaica. Now in his first year in the U-20 category, Cedenio has run 47+secs this season and is expected to go lower this weekend.
Eighteen-year-old Jereem Richards is another U-20 Boys 200m–400m specialist. A member of T&T’s 2012 World Indoor 4x4 team that won bronze in Istanbul, Richards recently clocked a personal best (PB) of 20.92 for the 200m. He is expected to feature prominently this weekend.
Kernesha Spann with a 400m hurdles PB of 58.61 this season is another name to watch. She has been consistent at the last three Carifta Games and will contest the Girls U-20 400m and 400m Hurdles. There are, also, Dominique Williams Girls U-20 800m; Hezekiel Romeo, Boys U-20 Shot Put; Ruebin Walters, Boys U-20 110 Hurdles & 400m Hurdles; Jonathan Farinha, Boys U-17 200m; and Mark London and Nicholas Landeau in the Boys' U-20 1500m. Post comment here