By Neto Baptiste
Despite minimal improvement in registration numbers for some field events, particularly in the high-jump, the Meet Director for this weekend’s National Track & Field Championships, Teddy Daley, believes there is still room for improvement.
Speaking ahead of Saturday’s start to the two-day event at the YASCO Sports Complex, Daley said he expects improved showings in the high-jump and the long jump but said a number of other areas continue to struggle.
“It’s not there quite yet but we are seeing improvements in terms of the numbers. We have probably four or so ladies who are going to be doing the javelin; we have a next five guys who are going to be doing the javelin as well so it lends for a competition. We have some very young talented high-jumpers, two of whom qualified for and went to the Carifta Games. There are several others and one who is probably better than those but he didn’t meet the are requirement to go to Carifta. We have several persons registered for the long jump in both male and female but the triple-jump however, is where we didn’t see a lot of registration,” he said.
Lack of participation in the field events has often been a cause for concern during the national championships with more athletes gravitating to the track invents, more so the sprints. In addition, the field events are often overshadowed by the more exciting track events and would usually climax without the knowledge of spectators at the even or acknowledgement of winners in the various events.
One member of the Antigua and Barbuda Athletic Association (ABAA), Kesswin Anthony, said measures will be in place to keep spectators informed and updated with ongoing field events.
“We don’t have a reader board so let me put that out there but once the field events are going on we will have persons announcing what the distance was the athletes jump or throw so you’ll be getting live updates while you’re on the stands. As for the long jump, there will be a board with numbers on there so you’ll get an idea as to how far the athletes jumped into the pit but there will be someone going around to the different field events announcing what the throw or the jump was so that you the patron can be in tuned with what’s going on,” he said.
Action will race off at 3 pm on both days. Adults will pay an admission fee of $20 while children 12 and under will pay $10. Children five years and under will pay $5.
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