Scheduled to get underway in 3 days is the IAAF World Youth Championships in Donetsk, Ukraine.
Team Bahamas is well diverse this year in terms of the disciplines in which they are ready to participate. The team is comprised of 8 girls and 11 competing under the age of 18.
Sprints:
On the girls side, CARIFTA under 17 silver medalist in the 200m Jenae Ambrose leads the way in the 100m. She will be joined by CARIFTA teammate Makeya White. Ambrose will lead the charge with a season’s best time of 11.83 seconds ran in the preliminary rounds of the 2012 CARIFTA Games held in Nassau. The boys will also see two CARIFTA participants in Ian Kerr and Keanu Pennerman. Pennerman is the under 17 boys silver medalist from those games. He has a season’s best of 10.64 seconds, and Kerr 10.75 seconds, both ran at the Bahamas Junior Nationals.
One girl and boy will attempt to pull off the 200m & 400m double for team Bahamas. Kadiesha Heild and Janeko Cartwright are those athletes. Cartwright is a more experienced athlete on the team and has so far had exceptional years on the junior level. Cartwright most recently won the junior nationals 400m in a personal best time of 47.26 seconds which ranks him 12th amongst youth in the world, and was second to Kerr’s 21.30 in 21.31 seconds respectively. Those times rank them 12th and 13th in the world.
Heild will be joined in the 200m by Loushanya Neymour, and in the 400m by Shaquania Dorsett. These young ladies are new talents to emerge in track and field this year and are slated to perform well at the youth championships. Kinard Rolle will join the field in the boys 400m with an impressive time of 47.83 seconds at the junior trials, bettering his silver medal performance at this year’s CARIFTA games in his previous best of 48.05 seconds.
Mid-Distance:
Claudius Russell is the lone member of the team in the distance events. He enters the championships with a 1 minute and 54.14 seconds 800m personal best timing ran at the Golden South Classic in Florida in May. Russell has shown progression in his race and times as the season has developed and is expected to do well.
Hurdles:
Standout sprint hurdler Xavier Coakley will enter the meet in two events. In the 110m hurdles Coakley is ranked 15th in the world with a time of 13.84 seconds, ran at the junior nationals into a gusty head wind. As a results, he is expected to perform extremely well when the competition gets underway. Coakley is to be joined by D’Mitry Charlton in the 400m hurdles. Both athletes come into the meet with personal bests ran this year. Charlton’s 52.97 seconds and Coakley’s 53.06 seconds ranks them just outside of the world’s top 20, but certainly puts them in contention to peak well, and advance through the rounds.
Talia Thompson and Mesha Newbold will both compete in the girl’s 400m hurdles. They have so far had a number of meets where they performed pretty well, but look forward to giving their best performance in Ukraine.
Jumps:
Leap of Faith Jumper Laquan Nairn will contest in both the Long and High Jump. In the Long Jump Laquan is ranked 10th in the world in a leap of 7.40m, which he did at the 2013 Carifta Games held in Nassau, Bahamas. Laquan is also ranked 10th in the High Jump in a height of 2.11m.
Kaiwan Culmer Iis slated to compete in the boys triple jump. He too was a CARIFTA competitor who is looking now to step up at this world endition of track and field. His best of 14.65, done at the Bahamas junior nationals sets him up for a good competition, and if he can surpass the 15 meter barrier he can be in contention to make the finals.
Throws:
Brashae Wood was a CARIFTA bronze medalist Iin the under 17 girls shot put. However, after the junior national trials where we saw a huge PR of her with a heave of 13.76m, it is evident that she is in peaking form and ready to make a stamp on her first major meet appearance. If Brashae were to make this final, she would be the first Bahamian to do so at this meet in a throwing event.
Javelin standout Denzel Pratt looks to also be another Bahamian to make history in the throws Iif he's able to advance to the finals of the boy's javelin. Pratt is coming off a 4th place finish at the CARIFTA games with a throw of 62.53m (800kg). This should be an indication that Denzel can throw further and possibly hit the 70m mark with his youth impliment, but his first time throwing it was at the junior nationals where he qualified for the WYC 63.01m (700kg).
Drexel Maycock is the third thrower seeking to make history of making a WYC final. Since Bradley Cooper, Bahamas National Record Holder, there hasn't been such a talent in the discus. Maycock is coming off of a promising performance of 54.14m competing unattached at the Jamaican Jr Nationals where he atttends high school. His coach is confident that he can throw further, and hope its at the WYC.
Speaking generally to the team, they are all excited to be competing in Europe and are ready to all set personal bests. Moreover, they all mentioned the success of Nivea Smith Stephen Newbold and Shaunae Miller at the World Youth meet, and would like to live up to and carry on such success. We at TrackSide Bahamas want to wish them all the best! For future updates you can check us out - http://www.facebook.com/tracksidebahamas
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