Carifta doesn’t offer much for Jamaica’s young athletes
‘While the Carifta Games is excellent for fostering regional unity and development, it does very little for Jamaica’s outstanding track and field athletes.’
LAST FRIDAY, I ventured to the National Stadium to support Briana Williams as she sprang into action and blew away the competition at the Carifta Trials. It was quite a tame affair with scant applause and a far cry from the big lights, big guns and electrifying atmosphere that I had experienced at the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Athletics Championships (Champs) from the very same stand six days before.
At Champs, a colourful sea of 30,000 captivated spectators surrounded me. It’s the jewel of Caribbean sports entertainment, complete with record performances, personal bests and fireworks to boot. At the Carifta Trials, a small gathering of athletes, parents, meet officials and coaches are thinly scattered across the venue. No fanfare. Anti-climactic at best.
Edwin Allen’s Michael Dyke said it best when he expressed concerns about athletes competing only six days after the gruelling rounds of Champs. About the 14-year-old Clayton twins – Tia and Tina – Dyke said, “It is a cause for concern
because we are coming out of a hard championship, but it is the national team, and they are excited to an extent.” “To an extent,” he said. Diplomatic and euphemistic.
The truth is, Champs dwarfs Carifta, but it also overshadows everything else across Jamaica’s track and field landscape. Nothing quite compares to Champs at any level. Not the National Senior trials with Usain Bolt; not the Racers Grand Prix with Yohan Blake, Asafa Powell and LaShawn Merritt; not the Jamaica Invitational with Elaine Thompson and Shelly-Ann FraserPryce; and indeed, not Carifta. That thrilling experience that Champs brings for spectators, coaches and athletes alike merely has no parallel.
Champs offers a unique value proposition for our athletes and coaches, and even our national programme, in that the intense atmosphere under which the athletes compete prepares them well for the pressures of professional competition. Even Olympians and World champions have publicly stated that the pressure that Champs provided prepared them mentally for their biggest global meets at the professional level.
Being exposed to the euphoria of flamboyant spectators and the high-stakes affair in the biggest high-school track and field event on the planet is the ultimate trial for our youth. Invariably, participants will face the starter’s gun with little fear after that. I often wonder if Asafa Powell would have fared better on the Olympic stage had he been exposed to that Champs experience.
But I digress. While the Carifta Games is excellent for fostering regional unity and development, it does very little for Jamaica’s outstanding track and field athletes. It affords our youngest athletes their first opportunity at national representation but doesn’t further develop their talent, as Jamaica dominates.
In the 47 stagings of the Carifta Games since 1972, Jamaica has won all of 42 times. Jamaica has topped the Carifta tables every single year since 1984 and has over 2,000 medals from the events. The closest medal tally is courtesy of Trinidad and Tobago, on less than 50 per cent of Jamaica’s total. It’s just not competitive.
For Jamaica’s best youth athletes, there are far more competitive opportunities at world youth championships and the Penn Relays. And for an athlete of Briana’s calibre, there are plenty of other ways to hone her talent and break global records.
I suggest that Jamaica’s top athletes either qualify through times produced over a set period that includes Champs, or we look at Carifta as an opportunity to expose some of our other athletes outside of the elite pool. This would undoubtedly make it more competitive and lead to broader development, which is the aim of youth athletics to begin with. One love.