The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

THE T-Bird Flyers Track Classic will be the first meet out of the gate as the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations’ 2023 season officially gets underway this weekend at the Thomas A Robinson Track and Field Stadium.

And according to the T-Bird Flyers Track Club’s head coach Foster Dorsett, they are anticipating a grand time as the meet starts at 6pm today and wraps up on Saturday, starting at noon.

“With this being the first meet of the year, what we do is we give the kids an opportunity to see where they are going into the season,” Dorsett said.

“We have some great expectations from them because this is the CARIFTA year and we want to have a really good showing.

“So we feel that the coaches have been doing a great job getting the kids ready and I know the kids are eager to compete in their first meet of the year.

“We anticipate that we might have some qualifiers for the CARIFTA Games because the kids have their sights of competing for the Bahamas.”

The Bahamas is playing host to the 50th Golden CARIFTA Games April 7-11 as a part of the 50th anniversary of the nation, so Dorsett said this year’s meet is going to be very special.

He said the athletes will find out that there will be events in all age group categories that will enable them to compete at their best.

While they are expecting close to 600 athletes to compete, Dorsett said they are aware that some of the athletes from Queen’s College, who hosted their inter-school track meet on Thursday and St Augustine’s College, whose inter-house meet is today, may not have all of their athletes compete.

“The meets are just too close in these instances, so we know that not all of the athletes from these two schools will compete,” Dorsett said.

“They are some of the top athletes who could be vying for spots on the CARIFTA team, but we still expect some of their athletes to compete.

“We also still have a lot of athletes who are eager to compete in the meet, so we expect that there will be some keen competition. We have some athletes coming in from Grand Bahama and some of the Family Islands, so the meet should be an exciting one.”

Additionally, Dorsett, who now serves as the first vice president of the BAAA and a member of the Bahamas Association of Certified Officials (BACO), said they will be honouring two fallen members of BACO.

“We will be remembering our past president Courtney Wallace and our senior official Ivy Charlton,” Dorsett said. “We will be honouring and recognising them posthumously during the meet for their contributions to the sport of track and field.”