JUST under a month ago the North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletic Association (NACAC) president, Mike Sands, stated the association will conduct a survey among its membership to determine if the April 3-5 date for the CARIFTA Games in Bermuda is feasible.
The NACAC recently carried out that survey and most of its members found the April schedule to be a bit too demanding especially with the nuisance that is COVID-19.
President of the Athletics Association of Guyana, Aubrey Hutson, who was a part of that survey, said that he believes CARIFTA 2021 would most likely be held in the month of July.
Hutson said, “CARIFTA may be pushed back to July based on my last discussion even though it’s not confirmed as yet. We know having it in April is a tough ask. So most of the countries basically were asked to do a survey and from discussions with most of those countries April was too tough and so there was a June option.”

“Most of us opted not to use June because of CXC and that’s because most of our athletes are around CXC age. So they’re (NACAC) pushing from July, so once we get confirmation from NACAC that it’s going to be in July, I guess the coaches then could again look back at their programmes and how to prepare the athletes,” Hutson disclosed.
According to a report by The Nassau Guardian in December 2020, Sands said: “At this time, we are still moving full steam ahead but there are several challenges that we are faced with. First of all, we have to look at the established protocols regarding COVID-19 in the host country. Secondly, we have to respect the protocols in the countries of the established member federations and how it pertains to travel in and out of those countries.

“At our last meeting, we took a position to conduct a survey among the membership to determine the viability of the date in question and whether or not that date is doable.
“COVID-19 is still out there and there would have been a spike in certain parts of the region. We’re looking at several options, but I can tell you that cancellation is not an option at this time. It’s just a matter of staying with the current date or switching to a later date.”
Bermuda currently has over 100 active cases of COVID-19 and only 12 recorded deaths in the nation of just over 60 000 people. If CARIFTA 2021 remains on schedule during the pandemic it’s almost inevitable that all incoming guests to Bermuda would have to take a COVID-19 RT-PCR test and receive a negative result.
The pandemic forced the region’s most prestigious junior athletics championships to break its 49-year record of hosting with its first cancellation in 2020. In 2019, Guyana achieved their record medal tally with 10, eclipsing the nine they won in 2018.