McMaster, DeFreitas to represent BVI At World Champs this month

The BVI Athletics Association (BVIAA) will be sending two athletes to the upcoming World Athletics World Championships that will take place later this month in Eugene, Oregon.

According to President of the BVIAA Steve Augustine, the two athletes will be Kyron McMaster in the men’s 400-metre hurdles and Beyonce DeFreitas in the women’s 200 metres.

The athletes will be accompanied by Willis Todman, who will serve as the team’s head coach and Mark Elliot who is the current head coach of Clemson University’s track and field programme in the United States.

McMaster, regarded as one of the top 400-metre hurdlers in the world, will be looking to be among the medalists at this World Championship staging after a fourth-place finish at the Doha World Championships in 2019 and another fourth at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

Despite not running a lot this year, McMaster grabbed a third-place finish at the recent Stockholm Diamond League meet in a season’s best of 48.58 seconds.

DeFreitas, a sophomore at The University of Central Florida (UCF) has a personal best of 23.40 in 200 metres which was set at the American Athletic Conference (ACC) Championship in mid-May of this year. DeFreitas also helped the UCF Knights women’s 4×100 metres team to a seventh-place finish at the NCAA Division 1 Outdoor National Championship last month. She also competed in the 100 metres at the first staging of the Caribbean Games last week where she finished fifth.

Meanwhile, Olympic Long Jump finalist Chantel Malone will not be competing at this year’s World Championship. Despite making the qualification standards for the Long Jump, Augustine said Malone has chosen not to compete.

“She is dealing with some personal matters, and we hope that she will be back for future meets and compete for the BVI at the very highest level,” the BVIAA President said.

The World Championships will run from July 15 until July 24 in Eugene, Oregon, United States.