5 more athletes qualify for nat’l team for 2020 CARIFTA Games

Five local athletes have joined the list of qualifiers for the 2020 Caribbean Free Trade Association (CARIFTA) Games which is set to take place in Bermuda come April.

The qualifying athletes are Akrisa Eristee, Kaelyaah Liburd, Orlando Douglas, Akeela McMaster and Adaejah Hodge. 

Competing at the BVI Athletic Association’s Dag Samuels Development meet recently, Eristee — a member of the Sprint Tech Track Club — qualified for the under-20 girls 400 metre event, after running 55.15 seconds.

Also competing at the aforementioned event was Liburd who qualified for the Girls 400 metre under-17 event with a time of 55.60 seconds, and Douglas who threw to a distance of 43.75 metres in the under 17 Boys Discuss event .

McMaster secured her spot while competing at the Elmore Stoutt High School pre-events in the high jump with a leap of 1.58 metres surpassing the qualifying distance of 1.55.

Hodge, in the meantime, qualified for the Long Jump event while competing at the Crossplex Birmingham Track Meet in the United States where she broke three records.

In the Girls 13 to 14 category, she leapt to 5.90 metres to make her mark for CARIFTA, and swept the 400 and 60 metre events by running 57.54 seconds and 7.85 second, respectively. 

They now join Jaleel Croal who qualified for the Boys 100 and 200 metre events in the Under 20 division, and the pair of Palesa Cesar and Kijana Callword who have qualified in the discus event.

Athletes are determined

Speaking to BVI News following the qualifications, BVI Athletic Association’s President Steve Augustine said the athletes have been showing determination to make it to the CARIFTA Games and perform.

“We’re fortunate that we’ve had eight athletes qualified so far, some of whom had tasted victory and are eager to taste it again, and some of whom are definitely motivated by their performance last year or performances they saw,” he said.

“They came back to the BVI and worked really hard with their coach.”