From Douglasville in Georgia, the 17-year-old student at Montverde Academy had several options of where to continue her academic career but eventually decided to return ‘home’.
Hodge has had an outstanding junior career during which she established a number of records for the BVI. At the 2022 Carifta Games in Jamaica, Hodge won the 100m, 200m and long jump and was awarded the prestigious Austin Sealy Award given to the most outstanding athlete of the meet.
In April 2023, she equaled Tahesia Harrigan’s national record for the 100 metres, running 11.12 seconds but later that month, made it all her own when she lowered it to 11.11 seconds in Lubbock, Texas.
She also owns the islands’ 200m record when she ran a time of 22.82 at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest in August 2023 when she qualified for the semi-finals becoming only the third ever female athlete from the British Virgin Islands to achieve this feat.
Running indoors in March, Hodge set a national record of 22.33 in the 200m. The time is also an Area U18 and U20 record.
Hodge is the latest Caribbean athlete to choose UGA in the coming academic year. US Virgin Islands athlete Michelle Smith and talented Trinidadian twins Sanaa and Sole Frederick have also chosen to attend the University of Georgia next fall
The 20-year-old former Clarendon College standout competed at the University of Texas in 2023 and 2024, with the latter being her most successful season to date.
She established new personal best in the 100m (11.38), 200m (22.60) and 400m (51.75) this season.
That 200m time came on her way to winning the Big 12 Outdoor title in May. She subsequently made it to the semi-finals of the 200m at the NCAA Division 1 Outdoor Championships in Eugene in June where she finished sixth in 22.82 in her heat.
Those outdoor exploits came after Oakley won the 200m-400m double at the Big 12 Indoor Championships in Lubbock, Texas in February.
Most recently, Oakley competed in the 200m at the Jamaican National Championships at the National Stadium in Kingston from June 27-30.
She ran 22.66 for fourth in the women’s 200m final behind Shericka Jackson (22.29), Lanae-Tava Thomas (22.34) and Niesha Burgher (22.39).
Internationally, Oakley took 400m bronze at the 2023 Pan Am U-20 Championships in Puerto Rico and was a finalist at the World U-20 Championships in Colombia in 2022.
She was also part of Jamaica’s silver medal-winning quartet in the women’s 4x400m at those 2022 World U-20 Championships.
However, the 2016 Olympic 110m hurdles champion gave no indication of why he had decided to leave or where he intended to go. His agent Mario Bassani declined to shed any light on the move which apparently took many by surprise.
As it turns out, the 2017 World Champion did not move too far away as Kyprianou shed light on his destination with a post on social media on Monday.
“Welcome to the group Omar @_warrior_child_!. Very excited to take this journey with you! Very thankful to @episcopaleagles for helping create this Olympic training group. What a great place to work at…”
Kyprianou joined the coaching staff at the University of Georgia in 2008 as an assistant coach, eventually becoming head coach in 2015. During his time there he won several awards while leading UGA to 11 top-four NCAA finishes in the last five seasons.
In 2017, he was named Women Outdoor Coach of the Year. In 2018, he won the NCAA Indoor Women’s title as well as the Men’s Outdoor title, which resulted in him winning the awards of Women’s Indoor Coach of the Year and the Men’s Outdoor Coach of the Year.
However, despite his success there, reports emerged in May 2021 that Kyprianou planned to leave Georgia when his contract expired in June that year.
The Athens Banner-Herald reported that in 2020, he turned down a multi-year extension offered by then-athletic director Greg McGarity and instead took a one-year extension.
In September, News4Jax reported that Kyprianou had joined the coaching staff at the Episcopal School of Jacksonville as the director of sports performance, a rare position in high school athletics.
Among the athletes he coached at UGA were Olympic champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo, USA triple jump champion, Kenturah Orji and Jamaican Olympian Chanice Porter.
He has also coached the likes of British heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson, St Lucia’s Levern Spencer, Maicel Uibo, Lynna Irby and rising sprinter/long jumper Matthew Boling.
Though Trinidadian the girls live in the United States and attend the Druid Hills High School in Atlanta, Georgia.
Both 17-year-old girls run the 100m and 200m. Sanaa, who has a personal best of 11.33 in the 100m, finished third in the event at the 2023 Carifta Games in the Bahamas in April, running a time of 11.65. She went two places better in the 200m which she won in 23.60.
She and Sole were members of the T&T 4x100m relay team that won the silver medal at the Games.
She followed up that performance with a bronze medal run at the Youth Commonwealth Games in Trinidad and Tobago in August, clocking 11.48.
No slouch herself, Sole has personal best times of 11.60 for the 100m and 23.41 for the 200m.
In May, the sisters along with Southwest DeKalb High School twin brothers Isaiah Taylor and Xzaviah Taylor combined for 13 of the DeKalb County School District (DCSD) 46 medals at the Georgia High School Association (GHSA) State Track Championships.
Smith, who attends Montverde Academy in Florida, is ranked as the number 3 recruit in the Class of 2023 in the United States, making her one of the most sought-after athletes in the USA.
The 17-year-old claimed a pair of gold medals at the 2022 Carifta Games in Kingston with 58.61 to win the U-17 Girls 400m hurdles and 2:10.78 to win the 800m. Smith returned a year later in Nassau to repeat her success, this time in the U-20 Girls section with times of 57.69 and 2:09.72.
Also in 2022, she came fifth in the 400m hurdles final at the IAAF World Under-20 Championships in Cali, Colombia in 57.48.
In 2023, Smith won her first two national senior titles. At the St. Croix Educational Complex High School on July 9, Smith ran 11.83 to take the 100m title before running 57.44 to claim the 400m hurdles crown.
Later in July, Smith claimed the 400m hurdles and 800m double at the NACAC U-18 Championships in Costa Rica with times of 56.99 and 2:09.90, respectively.
She followed that up with a silver medal in the 400m hurdles at the Pan Am Under-20 Championships with 57.99 in August and 57.53 to finish fourth at the Pan Am Championships in November.
She ran a personal best and national record 56.66 at the Texas Tech Corky/Crofoot Shootout in Texas in April.
