KINGSTON, Jamaica (CMC) – On the eve of the just concluded 49th CARIFTA Games, president of the North American Central American and Caribbean athletics federation Mike Sands hit the nail on the proverbial head.
“New stars are always born and all of our stars from yesteryear have come through the system and we would expect that we would see more of the same over these CARIFTA Games,” Sands predicted.

He was right. Striding into Caribbean athletics consciousness was Adaejah Hodge, the winner of three gold medals.
Jamaica dominated as usual, gathering a record tally of 92 medals with 47 golden ones on the top of the pile. However, even with Jamaica’s World Under-20 100 metres champion, Tina Clayton, keying a world record in the 4x100m relay, Hodge was the participant who made tongues wag the most.

Born in Puerto Rico but raised in the British Virgin Islands, the powerfully built 16-year-old showed poise and speed in equal parts to a small but appreciative National Stadium audience.
Her win in the Under-17 100 metres final challenged a record held by no less than current Olympic relay gold medal winner Brianna Williams. She fell 0.02 short with her personal best 11.29 seconds.
Her maturity came to the fore when a schedule clash left her with a tough choice – run the 200 metres semi-final or long jump for the gold medal.

After a quick consultation with the officials, she leapt to victory and breezed into the 200 final, which she won the next day.
The sprint-loving Kingston fans welcomed her with open arms.
“It makes me feel amazing, knowing that I won over the crowd,” Hodge said. “Knowing that they had their own sprinters in there and they still cheered for me was amazing.”

Clayton was not far out of the spotlight. She beat her twin sister Tia, 11.22 to 11.30 seconds, in the Under-20 100 metres on day one of the Games and on day two, she streaked down the backstretch to help Jamaica lower their own World Under-20 record from 42.94 seconds to 42.58 seconds.
The first change, from long jump champion Serena Cole to Tina, was cautious. Faster times are possible.

Bahamian giant Keyshawn Strachan also shone. In Kingston, he broke the Under-20 javelin record set by reigning senior World champion Anderson Peters with a world leading toss of 79.89 metres. Seventh at the last World Under-20 meet, Strachan has his eyes on two prizes.
“I want to get the gold for Worlds. My goal is to try to get to 85 metres,” he declared with a voice barely louder than a whisper.

That is no random number. An 85-metre throw would qualify him for the senior World Championships this July in Eugene, Oregon where Anderson will try to defend his title.
Jamaica, The Bahamas, Trinidad & Tobago and Barbados are CARIFTA’s ‘Big Four’ but in Kingston, the British Virgin Islands and Guyana stepped into the fast lane.
The Bahamas and the BVI both won four gold medals and Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and the US Virgin Islands took home two gold medals each.

Michelle Smith won both of those gold for the US Virgin Islands, with wins in the Under-17 800 and 400 hurdles. She took second place in the 100-metre hurdles as well.
Barbados, represented by a smallish team of just 18 athletes, won one gold medal.

Different rates of recovery from COVID-19 lockdowns may have held some countries back and may well have boosted Jamaica, who resumed its high school athletics programme early in 2021.
Nevertheless, the old order was preserved by the count of total medals: Jamaica 92, Trinidad and Tobago 23, The Bahamas 17 and Barbados, 11.

Nevertheless, there’s no denying that new teams have reached the CARIFTA top tier and, in particular, Hodge has now placed herself on everyone’s radar.
It now seems that, in his pre-meet interview with CMC Sport, Sands was indeed looking into a crystal ball.
“I’m very, very excited about what the future holds for our sport,” he said before the starter fired a single shot from his pistol last Saturday.