The tremendous success at the 49th Carifta Games in Kingston, Jamaica, is only another step on the pathway for the British Virgin Islands towards putting their athletes on the podium at the pinnacle of the sport.
At the Games that concluded last week, the BVI enjoyed their best-ever medal haul with four gold, two silver and a bronze medal surpassing their medal tallies from 2012 when they won five. Their medal haul saw them finish third in the standings behind Jamaica with 92 medals, 45 of them gold and the Bahamas 17. What was instructive was that BVI had the same number of gold medals, four, as their neighbours from the Bahamas.
Three of those medals were won by the imperious 16-year-old Adaejah Hodge, who the U17 100m, 200m and Long Jump to come away with the coveted Austin Sealy Award as the most outstanding athlete of the three-day meet.
But according to Steve Augustine, President of the BVI Athletics Association (BVIAA), the best is yet to come and is not too far away.
“What’s next for the BVIs, it’s back to the drawing board and putting in the work. We have a long list of local, regional and international competitions remaining,” he said. “While we are there, we haven’t officially arrived until we make the Olympic podium, we fell just short of this with two fourth-place finishes at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. This year, we are, of course, eyeing World U20, the Commonwealth Games and World Championships at which I am certain we will again show up.”
Augustine’s confidence stems from his belief in the BVI’s strong grassroots programme that has consistently produced world-class talents from their population of just over 30,000 inhabitants.
“The BVIs formula for success at the Carifta Games speaks of a preparation process that has taken training and mental preparation processes to a higher level, a level that is more in keeping with our competitive Caribbean counterparts,” he reveals.
“Our local club system has resulted in on-island competition whereby our athletes are pushed, much more than before, to perform at higher levels for victories. We monitor regional performances, we are well-advised by statisticians such as Rey O’Neal, and we are aware of where we need to be performance-wise if we are to be competitive.
“Our coaches are trained and certified, our athletes are hungry and they all aspire to be the next Kyron McMaster, Chantel Malone, Tahesia Harrigan Scott, Eldred Henry and now the next Adaejah Hodge.”
Hodge, he believes, will inspire a new generation of stars given what she has managed to accomplish at the 49th staging of the Games founded in 1972 by Sealy, who was on hand to present the award to her in front of an appreciative crowd.
“Yes, this will certainly happen but I must say our people naturally gravitate to athletics and despite all the struggles we may face as a growing territory, we have never had a numbers problem in athletics,” Augustine said.
“Support from the BVI Olympic Committee, World Athletics, our government, our fan base and with sponsors such as Puma onboard, we have been able to annually attract scores of athletes into our club system.
“The level of performance that Adaejah exhibited at the Carifta Games is a reality that our people have become accustomed to over the years. Adaejah has been performing at the top of her age group for years. She’s remained world ranked as a junior and she has continued to dominate at the US high school level. Adaejah was originally scheduled to make her Carifta debut at the 2020 Carifta Games and then the 2021 Carifta Games but for obvious reasons, those intentions had to be put aside. As it relates to our young ones, they are certainly inspired by Adaejah. It’s been this way for years and perhaps more so now.”
Augustine is confident that in the years to come, what unfolded in Kingston in mid-April will be more the norm than the exception.
“As it relates to other talents, the truth is there is only a handful of athletes on this year’s team that won’t be back next year and as it relates to those in the pipeline, we have a handful of gifted athletes that I know will represent the BVI well and will prove that they are indeed the next Adaejah Hodge, Kyron McMaster, Chantel Malone, Eldred Henry and Tahesia Harrigan-Scott.
“The storybook on BVI Athletics is far from finished.”
Leighton Levy is a journalist with 28 years’ experience covering crime, entertainment, and sports. He joined the staff at SportsMax.TV as a content editor two years ago and is enjoying the experience of developing sports content and new ideas. At SportsMax.tv he is pursuing his true passion - sports.
Peaches Roach-Findlay to be inducted into Iowa Athletics Hall of Fame
Peaches Roach-Findlay will be inducted into the Iowa Athletics Hall of Fame on Friday, September 1.
The Jamaican attended the University of Iowa for four years from 2004-2007 and enjoyed a collegiate career filled with numerous accolades.
She was a four-time All-American, 10-time regional qualifier, a five-time Big Ten Champion and the 2004 Big Ten Freshman of the Year.
Roach-Findlay also still holds the school’s indoor and outdoor high jump records as well as the seventh fastest 60m and 10th fastest 100m times in school history.
Competing internationally for Jamaica, Roach Findlay won a gold medal in the Heptathlon at the CAC Games in 2010 before returning a year later to cop the bronze medal.
Also in 2010, she narrowly missed out on a medal in the same event at the Commonwealth Games in new Delhi, finishing fourth.
She is also a three-time national champion in the high jump.
Texas's Julien Alfred (10.83) secures spot in 100m field at NCAA Championships; Arkansas's Ackera Nugent (12.69), Texas Tech's Roswell (12.77) advance in the sprint hurdles
Texas’s Julien Alfred will have a chance to defend her NCAA Outdoor 100m title after securing her spot in the field on the final day of the NCAA West Regionals in Sacramento on Saturday.
The 21-year-old St. Lucian, who won the NCAA Indoor 60m and 200m double earlier this season, sped to a meet record and collegiate leading time of 10.83 to comfortably be the fastest qualifier to the Championships set for June 7-10 on her home track at the University of Texas's Mike A. Myers stadium.
Her Jamaican teammate, Kevona Davis, also made it through the preliminaries with an 11.06 effort.
The Texas duo also made it through in the 200m with Davis running a season’s best 22.33 and Alfred running 22.45.
Arkansas’s Ackera Nugent, a two-time NCAA Indoor Champion, ran 12.69, a new meet record to advance fastest in the sprint hurdles. Her countrywoman, Texas Tech’s Demisha Roswell, also made it through with a season’s best 12.77.
Arkansas’s Nickisha Price and Joanne Reid both advanced in the one-lap event with personal best times of 50.49 and 51.49, respectively.
In the field, defending NCAA high jump champion, Lamara Distin of Texas A&M, easily cleared 1.85m to secure her opportunity to defend her title. Texas’s Ackelia Smith, world leader in the long jump, also booked her spot in the field for the triple jump with 13.96m.
Meanwhile, at the East Regionals in Jacksonville, Ohio State’s Yanique Dayle and Kentucky’s Anthaya Charlton made it through in the 100m.
Dayle, the Jamaican Senior, produced a big personal best 11.05 while Charlton, the Bahamian Freshman, produced 11.08 (2.3 m/s) to advance.
Dayle also advanced in the 200m with a season’s best 22.58 while LSU’s Brianna Lyston also made it through with 22.92.
In the field, Georgia’s Vincentian Junior, Mikeisha Welcome, jumped 13.50m to make it through in the triple jump.
Budapest gold is ‘pipe dream’ as Eilish McColgan bids to break 30-minute barrier
Eilish McColgan says winning gold at this summer’s World Championships is a “pipe dream” and she is instead focusing on breaking the 30-minute barrier in the 10,000 metres.
The 32-year-old Scot is recovering from the knee injury which forced her to pull out of the London Marathon last month just days before the race.
She returned to light training at the weekend with the August event in Budapest in her sights but admits that her time on the sidelines has severely hampered her chances of topping the podium.
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McColgan has had incredible success in the 10,000 metres over recent years, winning gold in the European Championships in 2021 and then at the Commonwealth Games 12 months later before creating history in March of this year by setting a new British record of 30:00.86.
And now she wants to become the first non-African-born woman to go under 30 minutes.
On her chances of winning gold in Budapest she told the PA news agency: “That would exceed my goals right now because of the setbacks I have had. I think it would be a pipe dream right now, but I am not going to set myself any real limits.
“To be in Budapest and be at the start and healthy would be a big achievement to be honest.
“But my big thing this year would be to break the 30 minutes in the 10k. I think there are only 12 women in the world who have done that, it would be a big achievement for me.
“Earlier in the year I had no doubt I could break 30 minutes, now there is a little bit of a doubt because I haven’t been able to train for the last so many weeks.
“It does put a little bit of a question mark over whether I can do it and perhaps that is one for next season, but it would be really nice to be in Budapest and be competitive.
“To be in the top six fastest women in the world… that would be a great achievement.”
It has been a frustrating few weeks for McColgan, having to rehab her knee problem, which fortunately did not need surgery.
And she cites recovering from injuries as one of the main triggers of stress in her job, especially as she says that her method of dealing with it is to go out and run.
“It’s a very privileged job that I have, it is not quite the same pressures as other people may have but we are still humans, we are not robots at the end of the day, so we do have pressures,” McColgan added.
“The biggest pressure is coming back from injury but we go through the same stresses as everyone else because with regards injury and illness, if we don’t race or compete that is how we pay our bills.
“It is the biggest pressure, coming back from injury and making sure you’re healthy.
“It is maybe more challenging for myself, running is ultimately what can cause my stress but it is what I use as a stress release. That is difficult if I am injured and I can’t do the thing I love.
“You train hard for years of your career for months and months on end to race. That lends itself to pressure, you build yourself up to that one event.
“Usually it’s the World Championships or Olympic Games because it is one day every four years where you have to be ready. It is quite big stakes when it is one day in four years.
“You think, ‘s***, that is not easy’. It is challenging to get the right balance of really enjoying your sport without it becoming too intense.”
A recent study has revealed that 85 per cent of people say sweating can increase stress levels, even though it is proven to have health benefits.
McColgan is part of deodorant brand Bionsen’s ‘Don’t sweat the small stuff’ campaign, which aims to remove the stigma of sweating and offer tips on how to manage stress.
McColgan added: “I don’t think people should be afraid to sweat. A few years ago it was almost like women didn’t want to be seen to be sweating, but now it is more of a confidence thing. Being active and keeping fit and being afraid to sweat is hard work, but that is what it takes.”
:: Bionsen’s full deodorant range is available from £2.69 at a variety of retailers including Boots, Amazon and Bionsen’s website: https://bionsen.uk/
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