Travis Webb leaps in the long jump, during the qualification to Carifta this year.

By Mwangi Ngamate
mwangi@caymannetnews.com

The Cayman Islands will be hosting the Caribbean Free Trade Association (CARIFTA) games 2010, the Annual General Meeting of the Cayman Islands Athletics Association was told recently.

The Track and Field Technical Director, Kenrick Williams said that along with Junior National Coach Tyrone Yen and Stephon Johnson, he has been working very hard with a group of athletes for the games.

Mr Yen has 20 athletes who will compete in the U-17 and U-20 category in the games. Mr Williams has 25 athletes who are aged 14-19.

The coach noted that the Cayman Islands athletes were aiming for more medals, noting that the country scooped one medal in the 2009 games.

The 38th edition of the Carifta Games at Vieux Fort, St. Lucia, ended on Monday 13 April this year with a myriad of outstanding performances, and a batch of record setting results during the three days of competition.

The CARIFTA Games is an annual junior athletics competition founded by the Caribbean Free Trade Association (CARIFTA). The Games were first held in 1972 and consists of track and field events including sprint races, hurdles, middle distance track events, jumping and throwing events, and relays.

The Games has two age categories: U-17 and U-20. Only countries associated with CARIFTA are eligible to compete in the event.

In the same Annual General Meeting fundamental revisions to the Association’s Constitution and Byelaws were made.

Some of these changes were: to include reports from overseas meets in the annual report, the position title of Secretary was changed to General Secretary, added the Junior National Coach was as an ex-officio member of the Executive Committee.

The meeting further changed the name of the association, changing the shortened name for the Cayman Islands Athletic Association from CIAA to The Athletic Association as CIAA is already registered with another company. During the meeting it was resolved that the executive will name members of the sub-committees within sixty days of the annual general meeting and advise the general membership of same.

In the meeting, the adding of the International Association of Athletic Federations and World Anti-Doping Agency as references for the anti-doping committee, was also announced.