The St Lucia Athletics Association has named a fairly young team to the 2011 LIME CARIFTA Games, this Easter weekend in Montego Bay, Jamaica. The 10-member was named after the successful staging of three national events to date this year, the Indpendence Track & Field Championships, National Junior Championships and the Inter-School Track & Field Championships, all three having been held at the National Stadum in Vieux Fort.
Its relative age notwithstanding, St Lucia's team does include a former CARIFTA champion and two silver medallists from 2010; Shem Edward captured a CARIFTA title in men's Pole Vault at the age of 16, when the meet was held in St Lucia. Last year he could only manage silver in Georgetown, Cayman Islands, but having cleared a new career-best heightt three times this season, he will be confident of climbing the podium once again.
Last year in the Cayman Islands, Jeannelle Scheper was a silver medallist in under-17 girls' High Jump. Partly on the strength of that performance, she earned a scholarship to University of South Carolina, where she has been improving steadily, and preparing to take her under-20 bow in Montego Bay. Scheper has already qualified for the 2011 IAAF World Youth Championships, 6-10 July in Lille, France, the only St Lucian to do so thus far.
Michael James is one of the team's CARIFTA veterans; the 19-year-old Roadbusters athlete will be taking on the challenge of the under-20 men's 1500m run. Representing Morne Stars Athletics Club, Nicarge Arnold will be making his under-20 debut in Long Jump, having competed in the under-17 ranks the past two years. Sharnique Leonce will try the women's Pentathlon for the first time, and Abilene Wildcats star Verlyn Taylor will run the 100m.
A pair of 15-year-old boys from St Mary's College by way of Survivors Athletics Club are on the St Lucia team. Denzel St Marthe will debut in the under-17 Javelin Throw, and Akhenaton Pierre will compete in the 400m dash. Also making their CARIFTA debuts at hte 40th edition of these Games will be schoolboy sensation Marbeq Edgar of Piaye and a second pole vaulter, Sylvester Charles Jr, demonstrating the strengh of the four-year-old Pole Vault St Lucia programme.
The team will be led by manager Wayne Burton, former president of the St Lucia Athletics Association, and coaches Henry Bailey and Victoria Despaigne. Earlier this week, the team received gift packages and a cash donation of $7500 from LIME, the presentng sponsors of the LIME CARIFTA Games.
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