NACAC President Mike Sands believes that the new August dates set for the 2021 Carifta Games could possibly create opportunities for a second tier of athletes to compete at the Games, in light of the more elite athletes opting to compete at the World U20 Champions set for Nairobi, Kenya from August 17-22.

NACAC announced on Thursday that the 2021 Carifta Games are to be held in Bermuda from August 13-15 due to the Caribbean Examinations Council setting the 2021 external examination dates from June 14-July16. Those dates overlap with the previous dates of July 2-4 for the Carifta Games.

Responding to whether fewer athletes would turn out for the Games because of how close they were to the World Championships, Sands said it was a concern, it was also an opportunity.

“That is a fix that we cannot resolve other than the fact that it does two things; one, countries are going to have to make a determination where their athletes will compete, but having said that we must understand that for the Carifta Games there is not a set qualifying standard,” he said.

“What you may have is that individual member federations have standards for their athletes to achieve, and so as opposed to the World U20 championships where there is a set standard, and so the question remains, how many of our area athletes would make those standards, particularly those from the smaller countries that may have a number of athletes making the standards for the world event.

“If that is the case, it now means that the member federations would have to make a determination whether some of their athletes go to Carifta and the qualifiers go to the WorldU20 championships.”

That scenario, he suggested, opened the door for a “second level of athletes that may not have qualified” for the global championships but who would become available for the 49^th edition of the regional youth championships.

He cited athletes from Jamaica, The Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados who would be among those benefitting from the situation.

Garth Gayle, President of the Jamaica Athletic Administrative Association (JAAA), on the prompting of the NACAC president said his federation would be reviewing the matter carefully with the intention of sending its very best athletes to both competitions.

“President Sands, the options that you have put forward would have been very clear to us but let me say from the get-go the JAAA will be supporting both events. We are Caribbean and therefore Carifta is critical to us and to youth development,” Gayle said.

“We are also part of the global stage and so our elite junior athletes would also have that option to move onto the world event. We believe it is doable and we do not see a major issue.”

He said the athlete and his or her coach would essentially choose which event they would want to compete in.

Since it's inception in 1972, Jamaica has won the Carifta Games on more than 40 occasions.