The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

THE local organising committee of the 2013 Carifta Games hopes to parlay the success of the Caribbean at the 2012 London Olympics into a star-studded celebration of the “One Caribbean” spirit when the Bahamas hosts the games at the new Thomas A Robinson next year.

The LOC has extended invitations to host each of the Caribbean’s gold medal winning athletes in track and field at the London Games, which includes Jamaica’s Usain Bolt and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce in the 100m, along with Trinidad and Tobago’s Kershorn Walcott in the javelin.

LOC chairman Basil Christie said the gold medal winners would be honoured guests of our very own “Golden Knights.”

“This was the place where our Caribbean athletes got their start and first burst onto the international stage. We saw the success the Caribbean had in London and we know that Carifta is the place for our best junior athletes to have the spotlight on them,” he said.

“We want to keep that One Caribbean spirit going so we hope that they would be here and act as honoured guests of our very own Olympic gold medallists. It is a great way to market the games to the wider track and field community at large with these names involved and the ability to say they started out as Carifta athletes.”

According to BAAA president Mike Sands, his organisation has made contact with the respective federations of each athlete and await responses on verbal commitments.

Carifta has become a rite of passage for many of the region’s track and field athletes who have gone on to become superstars in the field.

It has also become a breeding ground for the recruitment of NCAA talent and has garnered high regard from the IAAF because of the high quality talent level of the meet.

Bolt, the sport’s greatest star and the world record holder in the 100m and 200m, began his career by first setting records in the Bahamas at the 2002 edition of the meet.

In 2001, after finishing second in both the 200m and 400m in Bridgetown, Barbados, Bolt came to New Providence and shattered Carifta records in his trio of gold medal performances - the 200m, 400m and 4x400m relay.

Fraser-Pryce won individual bronze at the 2005 games in Bacolet, Tobago, in the 100m and won gold as a member of the 4x100m team.

Walcott, the 19-year old sensation, is one of the most decorated Carifta athletes of all time with four gold medals to his credit from 2009 to 2012.

The “Golden Knights” had their own measure of Carifta success before going on to successful NCAA and pro careers.

At the 1997 games in Bridgetown, Barbados, Chris Brown captured bronze in both the 400m and 800m.

And before making the shift to the 400m, Ramon Miller was a successful middle distance runner and captured gold in the 800m at the 2005 games.

Demetrius Pinder was a part of a pair of silver medal winning teams in the 4x400m relay in Les Abymes, Guadeloupe in 2006 and Basseterre, St Kitts in 2008.