The local track & field season came to an official close on Monday 23rd July as Anguilla’s youth athletics team returned home from Jamaica where they participated in the 14th Biennial Caribbean Union of Teachers Games. Following the trend set by all the other Anguillian track & field teams that competed overseas this year, the youth team did not return empty handed.
Eight-year-old Zenobia Reid captured bronze in the Girls Long Jump with a leap of 2.94 metres.
The most outstanding performance from Team Anguilla’s boys came from Aiden Hazzard who was recognized as the 4th best overall performer at the games. Aiden was denied a podium finish in the 800 meter run where he was beaten at the line and forced to settle for fourth place. He also finished in fourth position after the Javelin Throw. However, she set new national records in both the 800 meter race and Javelin Throw events with a time of 2:09.07 and a distance of 38.62 meters respectively. Aiden also competed in the U15 400 m and Shot Put where he gained points that gave him a 4th overall ranking with a total of 14 points.
With two of the team’s 14 athletes performing creditably, team coach, Alexis Ryan, commended the others for their hard work. “I think they did a credible job to reach in the finals”, he noted. “It was a very high level meet. Just to reach in the finals was an accomplishment and I think 90 percent of the team achieved that.”
Anguilla finished at the bottom of the medals table which Mr. Ryan attributed to the small size of its team. As a result its members’ participation was limited, and were therefore not able to participate in other events such as the relays.
The final standings after the Games were as follows: 1st Barbados, 2nd Jamaica, 3rd Trinidad & Tobago, 4th British Virgin Islands and 5th St.Kitts. The other participating countries were the Bahamas, Antigua & Barbuda, Nevis, Cayman Islands,Dominica, Guyana, Grenada and St. Lucia.
(Article and Photos by Arthur Ward)
