By TENAJH SWEETING
tsweeting@tribunemedia.net
THE Red-Line Athletics track club is set to host their youth and multi-events classic this Saturday and Sunday at the Thomas A Robinson stadium.
The meet is set to get underway from noon to 6pm on Saturday and from 2pm to 6pm on Sunday.
The Red-Line event will be the first track club meet post-50th CARIFTA Games since the Star Trackers Classic in February.
The track club showdown will include up to 800 athletes of 45 different clubs from New Providence, Andros and Grand Bahama combined.
Tito Moss, head coach of the Red-Line Athletics club, talked about his expectations for this weekend’s youth and multi-event classic.
“We expect that this meet will be good, keen competition. We are also having one of our senior athletes Samson Colebrooke coming down to compete, we [will] look for kids who fell short in qualifying for CARIFTA to be keen and hungry to compete to vie for meets that are coming up this summer,” Moss said.
The two-day meet hosted by the four-year old track club will feature the under 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 18, and 20 age groups.
Additionally, there will be an open division. The largest group of participants will come from the 15 and under category.
This year’s classic will include a multi-event for the first time ever for the under 11, 13, 15 age groups.
According to Moss, the multi-event will operate as a practice for the young athletes to familiarise themselves with the event ahead of the North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletic Association (NACAC) Championships. The under 11 and 13 athletes will also get a chance to compete in the discus, javelin and shot put which is not normally done at the track club meets.
Moss added that javelin in The Bahamas traditionally starts at under 15 but he wants the kids to start throwing earlier as they do at Amateur Athletic Union (AAU).
Therefore, he wants this weekend’s track club event to serve as an opportunity to offer events to the youth that are traditionally not offered as the meet is built around them.
In addition to their focus on the 15 and under age group, the club decided to add the under 18 division so athletes that are vying for a spot at the 2023 NACAC under 18 and 23 championships set for July can go head-to-head against each other. The head coach is expecting some good competition especially from his athletes as the Red Line track club had 10 members qualify for CARIFTA. The Team Bahamas members amassed one gold, 4 silver, and 4 bronze medals.
Athletes from Swift Athletics, Star Trackers, Road Runners, Bahamas Speed Dynamics and other local clubs will look to make their mark at the Red Line classic.
For persons interested in supporting the two-day meet, general tickets for two days are $18 for adults, and for kids over 3 the cost is $8. For two days in VIP the cost is $24 for adults, and $12 for kids. There will also be one day tickets on sale.
After this weekend’s event the club will work on securing more scholarships for their ten athletes set to graduate this year as well as their travels to AAU this summer.
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