Hosts Bermuda name 22 for Carifta Games

HAMILTON: Bermuda have  selected a 22-member team, including four seasoned campaigners, for the Carifta Games to be held at the National Sports Centre, starting on Good Friday, April 9. But there is no place for 11 athletes who failed to meet a December 15 deadline to join the national training programme, despite hope offered by an arbitration panel’s ruling earlier this week. National athletics coach Gerry Swan named Under-20 athletes Zindzi Swan, Britanny Marshall and James Bergl, as well as Under-17 competitor Latroya Darrell as the chief medal prospects when Bermuda hosts the region’s junior track and field showpiece for the first time in two dozen years.
 
Coach Swan, however, said after the team was presented to the public at City Hall on Friday he thought some of his other competitors could spring a few surprises in front of their home crowd. The selection of the Bermuda team has been dogged by controversy. Earlier this week, a three-man arbitration panel announced it had backed the Bermuda Track and Field Association’s decision to bar tenclub athletes because they missed the sign-up deadline. Although the panel seemed to leave the door open for the ten athletes from the Mid-Island Striders Club —  which is not affiliated to the BTFA — as well as middle-distance runner Flora Duffy, to be selected at the 11th hour, their hopes were quickly dashed. Last Wednesday, BTFA president Judy Simmons said the Mid-Island Striders Club was not in compliance with the Association’s guidelines or guidelines of the international body (the International Association of Athletics Federation) and it would be impossible to consider the plight of the club’s athletes as one of exceptional circumstances.” “CARIFTA is an international competition and the BTFA is bound by international rules,” she said. “This is what we have to do because it’s an international event. We have been saying this all the time.”

Squad: UNDER-17 GIRLS (age in brackets): Latroya Darrell (16) high jump, triple jump, 4 x 100 and 4 x 400 relays Eulannae Douglas (14) 100, 200m, 4 x 100 relay Kalita Furbert (15) 100m, 4 x 100 relay Shelby Hollis (14) 400m, 4 x 400 relay Britanny Pitt (15) 400m, 800m, 4 x 400 relay Akilah Reid (14) 1500m, 3000m Arantxa King (14) 100m, 4 x 100 and 4 x 400 relays Deanne Lightbourn (14) 400m, 800m, 4 x 100 and 4 x 400 relays
UNDER-17 BOYS: Jade Darrell (15) high jump, long jump, 4 x 100 relay; Tristan Francis (15) 100m, 200m, 4 x 100 relay; Miquel Lambert (15) 100m, 4 x 100 relay; Cody Lima (15) 1500m, 300m; Taijaun Talbot (16) 800m, 1500m, 4 x 100 relay; Kijaun Wilkinson (14) high jump, 4 x 100 relay
UDNER-20 GIRLS: Andrea Jackson (17) 100m hurdles; Chloe Kempe (17) 3000m; Britanny Marshall (16) discus, shot put; Zindzi Swan (19) high jump, long jump
UNDER-2O BOYS: James Bergl (19) discus, shot put; Deon Brangman (17) high jump
Derrick Golding (18) discus, shot put; LoVintz Tota (18) 100m, long jump.