NINETEEN-year-old Anfernee Headecker is still coming to grips with his CARIFTA Games silver medal, something he says is a dream come true after all the challenges he has faced over the years.
At the CARIFTA Games in Curacao, earlier this month, the former St Stanislaus College student won silver in the Boys’ junior 1500m, in a personal best time of three minutes 58.22 seconds (3:58.22s), the pinnacle of his athletics career since he started in 2013.
However, apart from the full scholarship to the University of Guyana (UG) that the Director of Sport announced last week, Headecker says he also has an offer from the Tennessee Tech University, in addition to another coach, which will help to boost his budding career.
When the Inter-Guiana Games gold medallist started out his 2017 season, qualifying for CARIFTA was one of the objectives at the top of his list.
This being his last year to attend the CARIFTA games, he was determined more than ever to medal. Though he was determined to win, for Headecker the achievement still came as a surprise.
Headecker says he can’t stop being proud of how far he has come, from his days of struggling.
“I feel proud of myself because it’s something that I’ve been working on long, since I started athletics life, and seeing it come through I feel like I’ve achieved something that I’ve always wanted to achieve,” the Guyana Defence Force athlete expressed.
“It was really challenging since I started training in 2013, because at times I had to leave my training because of exams, and due to financial struggles, I could not have always continued training,.” he further explained.
Headecker always had a liking for athletics, but it was only in 2013 after winning silver at the National Schools Championships that he finally decided to take athletics seriously, encouraged by his friends.
Soon after Headecker joined the Running Braves Athletics Club, he was told about the CARIFTA Games and the opportunities that could open up for him, and he set his goal to one day make it to the Games.
He eventually moved over to the Guyana Defence Force Track Club and continued his training, aspiring one day to achieve his goal.