The Tribune

By TENAJH SWEETING

Tribune Sports Reporter

tsweeting@tribunemedia.net

THE Blue Chip Athletics Club, powered by Norwegian Cruise Line, talent search continues this Saturday on the fields at Queen’s College. The club will stage its second team tryout for the year in hopes of finding some more talented throwers between ages 12-16. The one-day event will run from 8am until 10am this weekend.

Blue Chip head coach Corrington Maycock said the club is being intentional in their search for new talent.

“Blue Chip Athletics will be hosting its second tryout for the year. The reason why we are taking on this endeavour is to make sure that we have a proper flow from the under-17 division to the under-20 division to avoid a lack of athletes for our national system,” he said.

The decorated throwers’ club hosted their first team trials of the year in May. The event brought out up to 40 Blue Chip Athletics hopefuls that engaged in javelin throwing, discus and shot put. 

Blue Chip Athletics has seen many successful throwers pass through the programme over the years, including the likes of national record holders Keyshawn Strachan and Rhema Otabor.

Over the last five years, the programme has accumulated more than 20 CARIFTA medals with 11 of them being gold.

Coach Maycock said the goal for the club is to continue their dominance, not only locally but within the region. 

“Field events have been dominating track and field for the last four years and we want to continue our dominance not only here in The Bahamas but also in the Caribbean or the Western Hemisphere. 

“We want to make sure that we can establish communication with the schools and even parents out there who want their kids to get into something great, something that is safe and something that is gonna pay off later in the future,” he said.

Recently, CARIFTA gold medallists Taysha Stubbs and Dior-Rae Scott committed to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Coach Maycock encouraged all student-athletes to come out to the tryout and make the best of the opportunities in front of them.

“We encourage all potential student-athletes with some sort of athletic ability to come to the tryout. Right now universities in America have increased their scholarship numbers so it is basically easier now for athletes to get scholarships on the men’s side and female side. We want to take advantage of this and make sure that the majority of those scholarships come from The Bahamas. We are trying to increase our numbers to increase our success rate and increase our number of athletes that go off to school,” he said. 

Individuals interested in javelin, shot put or discus can contact 242-818-2095 or 242-395-6381.