By BVI Athletics Association

ST GEORGES, Grenada-The British Virgin Islands wrapped up the 45^thCarifta Games in St. Georges, Grenada on Monday night with silver and bronze medals.

Tarika “Tinker Bell” Moses won the BVI’s second silver medal in the U20 Girls 800m, to go with Lakeisha “Mimi” Warner’s U20 Girls 400m Hurdles on Sunday, bringing the territory’s total to three. In her first outdoor race of the season, Moses ran 2 minutes, 11.20 seconds behind Jamaica’s Junelle Broomfield’s 2:06.21, to end her Carifta career with a second individual silver medal along with an U17 Girls 400m silver, from 2013.

“This is the most bumps and hits I ever got in an 800m race,” Moses reflected after collecting her award. “But, I just listened to my coach, ran a smart race, be relaxed and I just let the Grenada girl do all the pushing, because I know I had more foot speed. So when I got by the 200m, I used my foot speed and left her and I know I had it in the bag.”

Reflecting on her Carifta career, Moses said in her first appearance she had a fourth place finish in the 400m. She made the 400m final in her second appearance but couldn’t run because of an injury. She earned a 400m silver and the next year she couldn’t run because of her hamstring. “Last year, I didn’t have a good run, I was out of the game,” she noted. “To get a silver in the 800m, it feels amazing to end off (my career) with this medal.”

The U18 Girls 4x400m Relay quartet of Judine Lacey, Zacharia Frett, Shaniyah Caul and Beyonce DeFreitas, bagged, bagged a bronze medal behind Jamaica and the Bahamas, with a time of 3:47.43.

DeFreitas, 15, just missed an U18 Girls 200m bronze medal when she lowered her day old personal best from 24.14 seconds to 23.97, the No. eight performance on the BVI’s All Time List. Winds robbed L’T’Sha Fahie of a personal best in the U20 race, after placing seventh in 24.38.

Akeem Bradshaw was fifth in the Triple Jump with a leap of 14.86m on his second attempt, after cutting the sand at 7.13m on his opening jump, a mar, that was good for fifth place in the Long Jump.

Arianna Hayde and debutant Akira Phillip, finished sixth and seventh respectively in the U18 Girls Javelin Throw. Hayde had a mark of 38.60m, while Phillip recorded a personal best of 38.43m. Britney Peters, competing in the U20 Girls division, finished with a mark of 37.94 and finished sixth overall.

By BVI Athletics Association

ST GEORGES, Grenada-After five athletes advanced to finals in the 100 and 400m at the 45^th Carifta Games in St. Georges, Grenada on Saturday, there were no medals until Lakeisha “Mimi” Warner snatched silver in the first final on Sunday afternoon in the 400m Hurdles, to end her Carifta career.

Warner split the Jamaican pair of Shannon Kalawan and Nicole Foster, to earn the silver medal in 58.14 seconds, solidifying her IAAF World Jr. Championships qualifying mark, which improves her own national record. Kalawan ran 56.29 to break a 13-year old championships record.

“I know I had to get out if I wanted to stay in the race because these Jamaicans, they going out hard,” explained Warner, who has two U17 Girls 800m bronze medals to go with U17 Girls 4x100m Relay bronze as well as U17 and U20 Girls 4x400m Relay silver medals. “So, I had to go just as hard, make a clean race, no chipping, trust myself, trust God and my coach that I could do it.”

Before Warner’s medal, debutant Rikkoi Brathwaite and L’T’Sha Fahie were both fourth respectively during Saturday’s opening day of the in the U18 Boys and U20 Girls 100m dashes.

Brathwaite-just the second BVI male to make a 100m final in the territory’s 40 years of Carifta Games participation, narrowly missed a bronze medal by 0.03 seconds, finising fourth in 10.69 seconds. He dropped his best from 10.92 a week ago at the Elmore Stoutt High School inter-house championships, to 10.88 in the prelims to advance.

The U20 Girls 100m final was a historic one for the Virgin Islands as the BVI’s Nelda Huggins and Fahie along with USVI’s Nia Jack, all advanced to the final. Jack ran a personal best of 11.70 seconds-which qualified her for the IAAF World Jr. Championships later this year-to finish ahead of Huggins’ 11.80 as both advanced from the heat. Fahie rode a 3.2 meters per second wind and placed second in 11.71.

Huggins aggravated her leg and skipped the final, where Fahie finished fourth in a 2.7 mps wind aided race, running 11.86. Jack ran 12.26 for seventh and suffered slight discomfort in her hamstring.

After a personal best of 53.72 seconds in the U20 Girls 400m preliminaries, Tarika “Tinker Bell” Moses finished fifth in the final in 54.02. Judine Lacey won her U18 Girls 400m heat in 56.56 seconds, before leg troubles limited her effectiveness in the final where she ran 57.04 for eight. In the boys equivalent, debutant Rackeel Jack ran 49.57 to finish sixth, after advancing with 49.64 in fourth place.

In the U20 Boys 400m final, Ronique Todman recorded a career best of 48.51 for sixth after running 49.11 to advance.

It marked the first time in his 40-year Carifta Games history, that the BVI had a finalist in all four male and female divisions.

K’Cei Moses was a non advancing sixth in his U18 Boys 400m heat in 51.46 seconds. Counterpart Shaniyah Caul ran 1:00.06 in fifth.

The BVI pair of U18 Girls High Jumpers, Z’Niah Hutchinson and Xiomara “Gia” Malone, settled for 1.55m after missing 1.60.

Beyonce DeFreitas dropped the fastest time in the U18 Girls final of 24.14 seconds, and will face the starter’s gun this evening, as well as Fahie, who ran a personal best of 24.77 in her U20 Girls race to finish fourth.

Zacharia Frett was among those not advancing in the 200m after finishing her U18 Girls race in 25.14. K’cei Moses ran 22.45 for fourth in his U18 Boys race. Todman’s 22.01 also did not make the finals cut.

In Sunday’s U18 Boys Discus Throw, BVI’s Djimon Gumbs finished sixth with a heave of 16.20m.

Kiwanna Emmanuel’s only legal U20 Girls Discus Throw measured 29.14m, as she fouled her other attempts.

The BVI will field an U18 Girls 4x400m relay this evening with Lacey, DeFreitas, Frett and Caul closing the territory’s participation in the event.

By BVI Milesplit

When U.S. and British Virgin Islands athletes begin lining up behind their blocks in the 45^th Carifta Games in St. Georges, Grenada on Saturday morning, many will hear a familiar voice saying; “on your marks.”

The BVI’s Patrick Harrigan is the official starter for this year’s edition of the games in which the territory began participating exactly 40 years ago.

“Much surprised,” Harrigan said. “I said ‘well look what it took for me to get to the Carifta Games after all these years.’ So I’m very much surprised.”

Harrigan said since the passing of the IAAF Regional Development Center Director in Puerto Rico, Lenford Levy, he hadn’t heard anything following a series of starting seminars he attended there and in Jamaica. He said he knew they were being prepared to start at Carifta and other competitions.

“But, there was nothing else,” he said. “I’m still wondering who made the nominations up to now. I was hoping that I would go to Jamaica for the Boyd and Girls Championships since we worked there and Teddy McCook was telling me he wanted to get me down there to start, so I wasn’t expecting it to be this quick and I wasn’t expecting it to be at Carifta.”

He said he must thank whoever made the nomination and felt it was worthwhile to have him going to Grenada to start. “I started in Grenada some years back just before the Hurricane came in and destroyed the stadium,” he explained. “I have a little knack of what Grenada is like, but it’s about trying to do a good job.”

Harrigan said he has been starting since he began teaching in the mid 1970s and had been at it for 38 years. Before becoming a starter, he was a member of the BVI Athletics Association and was into athletics on a whole.

“I didn’t compete much because I had a crazy injury trying to run the 100m so from then, the only thing I ever did was Shot Put and Discus Throw,” he pointed out. “But, I was always around athletics. It was as if there was a team working as officials, so after I started teaching I would start for the Primary School events so it just carried on from there starting every meet we had.”

What is he looking forward to in the starting role at the Carifta Games?

“Doing a good job,” he said heartedly. “Making sure that everyone that I start gets a fair start. During one of the workshops I attended, I told them that the meet isn’t about the officials and the guy running the workshop agreed. At the end of the meet, everyone leaves and don’t remember who the starter was, so it means that things were good. I’m looking forward to having a good time, everyone gets a far chance and hopefully, be able to start at Carifta wherever it is again.”