The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

After a two-year hiatus, the CARIFTA Games - the region’s top junior track and field competition - will return to Jamaica over the Easter holiday weekend next year for the eighth time since its inception in 1972 to the island that has dominated, winning the overall crown all but five times.

The games were scheduled to be staged in Bridgetown, Barbados, next year to commemorate the 50th anniversary, but because of the absence of the three-day competition over the last two years because of the coronavirus pandemic, those celebrations have been pushed back. The last games took place at the Truman Bodden Sports Complex in George Town, Cayman Islands, in 2019.

On Saturday at the North American, Central American and Caribbean (NACAC) Special Congress, it was confirmed by the Jamaican Amateur Athletic Association president Garth Gayle that the 2021 CARIFTA Games will take place from April 16-18 as a part of the plans for Jamaica’s Diamond Jubilee of Independence.

At the same time, it was confirmed that Jamaican sprinter Elaine Thompson-Herah and American shot putter Ryan Crouser were named as the NACAC’s Female and Male Athletes of the Year by the sports writers in the region.

NACAC president Mike Sands was elated that the pressure is now off in terms of where and when they will see the return of the CARIFTA Games and he’s even more appreciative of the JAAA and Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport Olivia ‘Babsy’ Grange for agreeing to stage the event.

“As you may be aware, I went down with the NACAC secretary general Keith Joseph and we met with the JAAA and the Minister of Sports and we pleaded our case because we were looking for a host and they agreed to do it following consultation with the Cabinet,” Sands said.

“They came to the forefront to make it happen.”

Jamaica first hosted the third edition of the games in 1974 back then on Independence Park. When they hosted the 40th edition in 2011, it was staged at the Montego Bay Sports Complex. This will be the 49th edition of the games and it’s expected to be held at the Jamaican National Stadium in Kingston.

As the perennial champions, having secured the past 34 titles after losing two straight to the Bahamas in 1980 in Bermuda and 1981 in the Bahamas, Sands said the reputation of Jamaica as the powerhouse of the competition speaks for itself. “We understand that the planning of Jamaica’s Independence celebrations and the hosting of the CARIFTA Games all come under the Minister of Sports’ portfolio, so this was a natural fit,” he said. “We look forward to the return of the games next year.”

To their member countries in the NACAC region, who are a part of the competition, Sands urged them to prepare their athletes for the biggest competition that the majority of them will ever get to compete in.

“I’m of the view that every child within the Caribbean involved in track and field has their goals and aspirations is to make their country’s CARIFTA Games team because of the significance of the event in the region,” Sands said.

“In some instances, this might be the first and only national team that they get to compete in and with the opportunities available to receive athletic scholarships to colleges and universities in the United States and Canada, they are more than eager to compete.”

However, having lost the past two years of competition, Sands said he’s uncertain what impact that will have. But with the date and venue confirmed for next year, Sands they are just keeping their fingers crossed that everything will work out after they painfully had to cancel the past two years because of COVID-19.

“There’s no question in my mind that any form of layoff will have some form of negative impact, but it also now costs the coaches to step up their game and to start thinking outside of the box and ensure that their athletes will be ready,” Sands said.

“We know that some athletes would have been affected because of the age difference since the last event was held in the Cayman Islands in 2019, but there are those who are still eligible and so it’s up to the coaches to ensure that their athletes are ready to compete come April 2022.”

NACAC Athletes of the Year

As reported by Terry Finisterre, a member of the NACAC Sports Journalists Working Group, chaired by Kwame Laurence and consisting of Katya Lopez, Eyleen Rios Lopes, Gisele Ericher, Javier Clavelo, Andre Lowe, Brent Stubbs and Dean Greenaway, Thompson-Herah and Crouser stood out among all of the other athletes in the region this year.

The group selected the pair as the NACAC Female and Athlete of the Year for their stellar performances in 2021, a decision that got the approval of Sands on behalf of the NACAC family.

“Their performances qualify them and they deserve to be called the Athletes of the Year,” Sands said.

“Their performances spoke for them. I don’t think anybody can deny that they performed consistently on the world stage this year.”

Writing on behalf of the group, Finisterre revealed that Thompson-Herah’s 2021 season will go down in history, as she produced one of the greatest runs of excellence of all time.

Within the span of just over three weeks, between the end of July and late August, she won two individual gold medals at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan. Her 100m win came in an Olympic record time of 10.61, while her 200m victory then yielded a national record time of 21.53 seconds.

Shortly after her double Olympic triumph, which she topped off by winning the sprint relay with Jamaica, Thompson-Herah lined up at the Prefontaine Classic, in Hayward Field, Eugene, Oregon, USA. She stamped her class with a run of 10.54 seconds, a new national record - and like her 200m Olympic win - the fastest time in the world since Florence Griffith- Joyner’s World record in 1988.

Thompson-Herah would go on to take her third Diamond League title, winning the women’s 100m final in Zürich with a time of 10.65 seconds. It was the seventh Diamond League title for Jamaica in the women’s 100m.

Only five women this century have ended a season with the fastest times in both the 100m and 200m. Coming into the season, four of those five were Jamaican.

And this season, Thompson-Herah became the first woman ever to repeat that feat following her 2016 success.

In the process, Thompson-Herah went under the 10.80-second barrier 15 times. Only her compatriot Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, has more such runs. But Thompson-Herah is the queen of sub-10.70 runs, with four such, more even than Flo Jo.

Thompson-Herah, Fraser-Pryce, and Shericka Jackson completed the Tokyo women’s 100m medal podium, and the three Jamaicans have combined for 34 runs under 11 seconds this year.

Crouser, on the other hand, owns both world records, resetting the men’s shot put standard indoors and out this past season. The 28-year-old American champion also captured the NACAC Indoor Male Athlete of the Year, which he followed up with gold at the Tokyo Olympics, and the Diamond League trophy.

Both Thompson-Herah and Crouser have been listed among the stars for end of the year awards by World Athletics, the governing body of the sport. They have been joined by a few other athletes in the region, including Bahamian female Olympics’ 400m champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo.

Sands said it’s good to see the NACAC region holding its own among the other member associations around the world and its just a testimony of the fantastic athletes that they have produced and they will continue to push for their rightful places on the global stage.

World Athletics is scheduled to announce its Athletes of the Year later this month.