(l-r) BVIOC Secretary General, Lloyd Black, athletics coaches, Winston Potter, and Karl Scatliffe, Shot Put and Discus throw athlete, Eldred Henry, 100m and 200m sprinter Shaquoy Stephens, BVIOC President, Ephraim Penn, Assistant Director Department of Youth Affairs and Sports, Paul Hewlett, Chef de Mission Xx Commonwealth Games, Mark Chapman.
10 athletes who will represent the Virgin Islands at the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games were announced by Chef de Mission for the XX Commonwealth Games, Mark Chapman, at a press briefing held on July 3. The athletes for Athletics, Squash, and Swimming were selected based on meeting the necessary qualifications to compete in the Games.
In Athletics, the quartet of Tahesia Harrigan-Scott, Ashley Kelly, Karene King, and Chantel Malone will make up the women’s 4 x 100m relay team. Individually, Tahesia and Karene will run in the Women’s 100m dash. Karene and Ashley will compete in the Women’s 200m sprint while Ashely will also run in the Women’s 400m. Chantel will compete in the Women’s Long Jump.
Keron Stoute will compete in the Men’s Decathlon. Eldred Henry will be competing in the Men’s Shot Put and Men’s Discus Throw. Shaquoy Stephens will run in the Men’s 100m and 200m sprints.
Joseph Chapman will be representing the VI in squash for the third time in the Commonwealth Games.
For the first time in its Commonwealth Games history, the VI will be represented in swimming. Sisters, Amarah and Elinah Phillip will both compete in the Women’s 50m Freestyle, and the 50m and 100m Butterfly. Elinah, who captured four medals for the territory at the 2014 Carifta Swimming Championships in Aruba in April this year, will also compete in the Women’s 100m Freestyle.
The team will be arriving in Glasgow on the July 20 with the opening ceremony taking place on the July 23. Athletes in Squash and Swimming will start competing on July 24 and the competitions in Athletics will start on July 27.
The athletes will be accompanied by coaches Winston Potter and Karl Scatliffe for athletics and Joseph Kneipp, Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games Gold medalist, will attend as the squash coach. The Phillip sisters will be attended by their swimming coach, Amed Samir.
The BVIOC, in its capacity as the local Commonwealth Games Association takes on the responsibility for all the administration, accreditation, and arrangements including travel and accommodation for the competitors and coaches. It also serves as the body to whom National Federations present their qualified athletes to undergo the selection process.
“These young men and woman have been identified and selected by the relevant national federations based on their performance in the national and international arena,” said Penn. “We are exceptionally proud of their achievements and applaud them for their hard work and perseverance.”
Mr Paul Hewlett, representing the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports and the Department of Youth Affairs and sports congratulated the named athletes and wished them success as they represented the territory as its ambassadors.
The Commonwealth Games is an international, multi-sport event involving 71 teams of athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. It will feature 17 sports in 11 days of competition with 261 medal events on show. The Games will play host to four thousand five hundred athletes and sell one million tickets.
To date, the Virgin Islands has participated in 6 Games, the first being in athletics in Auckland, New Zealand in 1990. Glasgow will be the VI’s 7th appearance.
The press briefing was followed by a special screening of the BBC coverage of the Queen’s Baton Relay through the VI and the Caribbean. The Queen’s Baton Relay, which is the pre-cursor to the Commonwealth Games, was accompanied by the international traveling crew and BBC documentary crew who visited the territory from April 2 -5 as part of the baton’s tour of the 71 Commonwealth member countries.
