Croal strikes historic gold! BVI bags 7 medals at CARIFTA
British Virgin Islands athletes wrote their names in history after tallying a total of seven medals at the recently-concluded CARIFTA Games in the Cayman Islands during the Easter weekend.
Topping the list of those BVI athletes was Jaleel Croal who won the only gold medal for the territory in the Under 17 Boys 200-metre final.
The sprinter is now first ever male local athlete to win gold for the territory at the CARIFTA Games in that event.
Croal ran out of the unfavoured Lane 8 to clock a personal best of 21.43 seconds ahead of Jamaican favourites Christopher Scott and Richard Nelson who finished second and third, respectively.
The BVI athlete had created history earlier in the Games when he finished third in the Under 17 Boys 100-metre sprint with a time of 10.80 seconds. This made Croal the first local male athlete to win a medal in the event in more than 43 years.
Excellent performances overall
President of the BVI Athletics Association (BVIAA) Steve Augustine expressed pride not only with Croal’s performance but with the BVI’s overall performance at this year’s staging of the Games.
“The athletes all came out with a wall of confidence walking on to the field … We have a very knowledgeable coaching staff based back home in the BVI who are doing a wonderful job with kids and I think the results [were shown] here at the CARIFTA Games,” Augustine said.
“This is not just another track meet, this is the prestigious CARIFTA Games where everyone comes here looking to strike gold and we came here and we did it in many events … We’re quite happy with the results we have at this year’s CARIFTA Games,” the BVIAA president added.
The BVI Carifta team ended the Games with one gold, three silvers and three bronze medals.
The other local medallists include strongman Djimon Gumbs who made a throw of 54.76 metres in the finals of the Under 20 men’s Discuss to place third.
Female sprinter Beyonce Defreitas finished third in the Under 20 women’s 200 metre event in 23.79 seconds, Khybah Dawson leapt to a distance of 6.83 metres to claim silver in the men’s Under 17 Long Jump, quarter-miler Akriss Eristee claimed silver in the Under-17 women’s 400 metre race with a time of 54.10 seconds, and the quartet of Eristee, Kaelyaah Liburd, Ariyah Smith and Jahtivya Williams claimed silver in the women’s 4×400 metre relay in a time of 3:44.89 seconds.
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Congratulations all on your mammoth achievement! Keep up the good work.
Gongrats to all the athletes that represented the BVI in last few days at a variety of sporting events. Thanks for a job well done.
Awesome for our country! Great efforts and thanks for making is proud.
Congrats to the team, coaches and all who assisted. Great job!!!
That’s wonderful team. Congratulations and keep up the good works.
Excellent! !
I am very proud of this young athlete on his achievements. Hope that he keeps focus in both his academics and track career and also be discipline.
Lets hope that they get a motorcade as huge as the VIP’s own
Congratulations for Team BVI!!!!!! I am very proud of their accomplishments. The entire team was EXCELLENT!!!!!!
Congratulations to the Athletes,Coaches,parents and supporters as well. Government need to take notice and inject money into the athletics.
This is the type of news I like. Congrats to all of you awesome guys. So proud of each and everyone of you. You are the ones that make the BVI shine bright like a diamond.
This is a fantastic performance. Definitely a motorcade is called for.
This is great great news! These kids and coaches work hard every day and are seeing the fruits of that hard work! Let’s continue to support them and this sport!
Keep pushing!
Wow. I tuned in to Carifta to watch the live races and missed Jaleel’s victory. I must have played it ten times since then though. I am so proud of you Jaleel and all of our athletes. I am watching the tapes and beaming. Love track and field and love my BVI team. They were always in Lane 8 it seems, but they did well. I saw Beyonce got the same lane 8. Keep striving. Keep pushing. Hopefully our new Government will assist in your training efforts. Good Job.