The Tribune

The Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations (BAAA) Kids Athletics, Junior and Senior Nationals might be one of the most highly anticipated events of the track and field season and it is set to return to the original Thomas A Robinson Stadium June 26-28.

The meet will precede the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, scheduled for July 26 to August 11 in Paris, France, and Bahamian athletes are expected to be at full strength for the three-day meet.

Meet Director Demarius Cash is expecting to see stiff competition at what has been dubbed the ‘Road to Paris’ with Olympians Shaunae Miller-Uibo and Steven “Speedy” Gardiner leading the way.

“We want to highlight our athletes and present them to you and you get to see our talent pool. The meet is gonna be a very interesting meet. We have two of our Olympic champions coming in Steven Gardiner and Shaunae Miller-Uibo. The meet itself is gonna be a high class meet where everyone is gonna try to get on this team for the ‘Road to Paris’. We want everybody to come out and watch this event,” Cash said.

Presently, six Bahamian athletes have qualified in individual events for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games. The list of individual qualifiers to this point are world indoor record holder Devynne Charlton, Denisha Cartwright, Charisma Taylor (100mh), Anthonique Strachan (100m and 200m), Wanya McCoy (200m) and Steven “Speedy” Gardiner (400m). The Bahamas has also qualified in the mixed 4x400m relay event.

BAAAs president Drumeco Archer is expecting the list of Bahamian Olympic qualifiers to grow at the BAAAs Kids Athletics, Junior and Senior Track Nationals. “Our focus has always been on excellence in our sport and I think that what we see today is a testament to the excellence of our programme. I think at the end of the day we see results and we continue to produce results. For the first time in our history, we will be marching three exciting hurdlers to Paris and I think that more will be to come. I am excited about our prospects for relay [teams] that have yet to qualify. More specifically, our men and women’s 4x100m there is an opportunity once again for them to qualify,” Archer said.

Day one of competition will feature the sprinters in the 100m event and quarter-milers in the 400m. Athletes will also compete in the high jump event.

The 100m sprint event is expected to be exciting as top performers Terrence Jones and McCoy are anticipated to compete at next month’s nationals along with other collegiate athletes who were unable to attend the 2024 BTC World Relays.

Archer is looking forward to seeing the collegiate athletes turn in strong performances on home soil.

“I am excited. I think that what can be said is that Team Bahamas suffered with the absence of a lot of our outstanding collegiate athletes competing. We are excited about having Terrence Jones, Wanya McCoy, Antoine Andrews, Denisha Cartwright, who is already an Olympic qualifier and Anthaya Charlton, who was a standout athlete at the collegiate level. Then you have the likes of Rhema Otabor and Keyshawn Strachan who will also be returning to our space. We are excited and I think this is an opportunity for there to be a regeneration of talent in our programme and we will have an opportunity to see it then,” he said.

This year’s Junior and Senior Nationals has a new component in the form of the Kids Athletics segment which begins at 10am each day. Athletes in the under-13 (U13) and under-15 (U15) age groups will be invited based on performance results to compete at the national meet. They will participate in the high jump, softball throw, hurdles and javelin events.

Additionally, the track meet will include a ‘Differently Abled’ session and athletes will compete in the 100m event.

The BAAAs president was delighted to see the new components added to the meet’s schedule.

“It was important for us to see our Kids Athletics programme form part of the overall national programme because young kids want to be like Shaunae Miller-Uibo and emulate the likes of Steven Gardiner and Devynne Charlton. It is important for them to be a part of that space. We have integrated a programme that we believe is exciting for the grandparents, aunts and uncles to come and watch ‘little Johnny’ run. We will have our junior programme that will highlight the Carlos Browns and some of the standouts…I am appealing to Bahamians far and wide to come out and watch,” he said.

According to Sheldon Longley, BAAAs vice president of public relations and marketing, Bahamians will surely be in for a treat with regards to the hurdles event which is scheduled for day two.

This is the first time in Bahamian history that three athletes have qualified in the hurdles event for a global event.

“We have never had this much athletes qualify in the women’s 100m hurdles so it is going to be an exciting race between those three and we are looking forward to it. Denisha Cartwright is just coming off a NCAA DII title win, Devynne Charlton, who is the world indoor record holder and Charisma Taylor have all qualified. We expect a lot more of our athletes to qualify at the nationals,” Longley said.

The three-day meet will begin at 10am each day starting with the Kid Athletics segment and that will be followed by the Junior and Senior portion of the meet at 5pm.

Tickets are priced at $20 for VIP seating and $15 for regular seating.