The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

AFTER turning in another distant second place finish behind powerhouse Jamaica at the return of CARIFTA, Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations president Drumeco Archer said there’s a lot of work to do to prepare for the hosting of the 50th anniversary of the championships next year.

The Bahamas collected 17 medals, including four gold, six silver and seven bronze as host Jamaica dominated with more than 90 medals with a sweep of all eight relays on their ledger at the three-day meet over the Easter holiday weekend in Kingston.

Surprisingly, the British Virgin Islands came close to moving into second, but ended up a close third with seven medals, including four gold as well at the biggest regional junior track and field competition.

Three of the BVI’s gold came from Adaejah Hodge in the under-17 girls 100 and 200 metres as well as the long jump to earn the Austin Sealy Award as the Most Outstanding Athlete.

The Bahamas rode the national and championship record breaking performance from Keyshawn Strachan in the under-20 boys javelin, Dior-Rae Scott’s CARIFTA record in the under-17 girls javelin, Brenden Vanderpool’s triumph in the under-20 boys pole vault and Curtis Mitchell’s impressive run in the under-20 boys 5,000m.

In critiquing the entire performance of the 54-member team, Archer said they competed as best as they could, but even their best wasn’t good enough to match against the Jamaicans, who once again came away with a number of 1-2 or 1-3 or 2-3 winning combinations.

“As we move towards the 2023 games that will be held in the Bahamas, we clearly understand that we have to raise our level of competitiveness and our level of preparation,” he said.

“I still believe we have some of the most gifted athletes, but there are some technical areas that we need to pay close attention to and really make sure that the athletes are ready for what is to come.”

As a general observation in Jamaica, Archer said the Jamaican athletes are stronger in the technical areas, including the hurdles and they are even more technically sound in the sprints. “We have to also deepen our presence in the Bahamian community,” he said. “My executive team will be looking at creating a talent search throughout the length and breadth of the Bahamas to begin identifying the talent that we have available,” he said. “We had a classic example in Dior-Rae Scott, who only got a javelin in her hands eight months ago and under coach Corrington Maycock of Blue Chips Athletics, set a CARIFTA record that was once held by Lavern Eve and Rhema Otabor.”

In their post mortem of the team’s performance, Archer said they will begin to focus on how they will look at preparing the team and the Bahamas for the hosting of the games for the ninth time next year.

He noted that Scott, through her record-breaking performance, will be one of the faces that they will showcase as her story is told to those younger athletes who seek to be a part of the team next year and to inspire some of those who were not included this year.

While there were some who questioned whether the BAAA carried the best team, there are those who are of the opinion that there were some who didn’t make the team, but could have made a difference.

“We generally establish a standard, based on an average of the fourth place finish over a three-year period of the most recent CARIFTA Games,” Archer said. “The only addition to the standards that we made would be the men and women 100 and 400 metres where we established a B standard. “We did that in order to be able to put together a relay pool for the 4 x 100 and 4 x 400m. What we did this year, based on a petition from the coaches because of COVID- 19, was to reduce the A standard.

The recommendation was made to produce a B standard in the event that there was no A standard achieved in those events.”

Archer said based on the performances at the games it was obvious that the rest of the region is catching up with Jamaica and the Bahamas, in particular, the British Virgin Islands. “They understand that their standards are greater than our own. Grenada performed remarkably well, so did Barbados and Trinidad & Tobago,” he said.

“I think there has to be a discussion as to where we are in the region and to the place where the region now finds itself. I heard one of our coaches talking about standards, but no adjusting of the standards would have yielded any greater performances that we achieved this year.”

In sticking to their stance to carry only athletes who qualified, Archer said he doesn’t believe if the team was stacked any differently whether or not the Bahamas would have gotten anything other than second or third.

“There was no team that would have given anything greater than second or third by the reduction or taking an increase in athletes on the team,” he said.

“Jamaica had some phenomenal performances where we had many athletes who were running faster in events that they competed in.”

It was definitely a reality check for Team Bahamas as they prepare for 2023.

He’s proposing that a national talent search begin immediately in trying to locate and polish off the next diamond in the rough like the Scotts.

“We have to attract more people to our programme and to identify new superstars just like Jamaica seems to do every CARIFTA,” he said. “We know that there are many athletes we overlook. “I don’t have all of the answers, but we have to collectively put our heads together and find a way to do the same thing that Jamaica is doing because if we beat them before, we can certainly beat them again.”

The last time Jamaica lost at the CARIFTA Games was when the Bahamas won back-to-back titles in 1983 in Martinique and in 1984 when the Games was staged in the Bahamas.

With the country celebrating its 50th anniversary of Independence next year, it is hoped the BAAA can try to stop the perennial dominance of Jamaica but it won’t be easy because it appears as if they just get better year after year.