First four local athletes qualify for 2019 CARIFTA Games

Four British Virgin Islands athletes have already qualified for the 2019 CARIFTA Games which are to be held in the Cayman Islands.

Diamante Gumbs, Jaleel Croal, Palesa Ceasar, and Djimon Gumbs are the qualifiers.

The quartet made the national CARIFTA Games team after strong individual performances at this season’s kick-off of the Dag Samuels Development Series at the weekend.

Diamante earned a spot on the BVI team after throwing 16.80 metres in the Boys Shot Put. His throw surpasses the BVI’s qualifying mark of 16.75 metres.

The young strongman will also be competing at CARIFTA in the Discus event. He made a qualifying Discus throw of 52.33 metres while competing at the aforesaid Dag Samuels meet.

His twin Djimon threw 54.10 metres to a surpass the qualifying mark of 52 metres in the said Discus event.

Ceasar, the only female among the line-up of qualifiers so far, threw 34.90 metres in the Under-15 Girls Discus event. The qualifying mark for her event is 34 metres.

Over on the track, Croal qualified by running a time of 10.99 seconds in the Under-17 Boys 100-metre dash. The qualifying benchmark is 11.25 seconds.

The BVI Athletics Association set national qualifying standards so local athletes who compete in international events can do well. The CARIFTA Games does not set qualifying standards for countries to participate.