Elinah Phillip of the Virgin Islands won gold at the CARIFTA Games yesterday and set a new meet record with a time of 28.71 seconds in the 50-metre fly swimming race.
The 43rd track and field competition was held in Fort de France, Martinique, while the 29th swimming championships was hosted by Aruba.
Elinah won the territory’s first Carifta Games swimming medal, a bronze, in the 100-metre butterfly event in the 13-14 Division in 1:08.82 minutes earlier in the meet.
Her sister, Amarah, finished in 11th place in the 15-17 Division.
All told, the swimmers competed in four events each: the 50- and 100-metre freestyle, and the 50- and 100-metre butterfly.
In the semifinals, Elinah came close to the CARIFTA Games girls 50-metre freestyle record of 29.49 seconds after she won her heat in 29.95” and set a personal best. It was the fastest qualifying time.
Amarah was 12th in the 15-17 Girls Division in 32.10 seconds.
It was the territory’s second appearance at the CARIFTAGames swimming championships.
“I think it’s a step in the right direction and a proud day for the BVI Swimming Federation,” BVISF President Elsworth Phillip said of his daughters. “It’s a testament in my opinion to all that we have been pushing for and going through for the development of the sport in the country. We weren’t able to attend last year, but we are happy to be back at Carifta and really happy to be in the position to put BVI swimming on the map.”
The VI’s track and field athletes also had impressive performances at the games in Martinique. Aside from the podium finishes, several athletes had personal bests, set national youth and junior records and qualified for the IAAF World Junior. Championships.
All told, the VIhas won 37 medals since first competing in the games in 1978. Eighteen of those medals were won since 2011.
Sprinter Nelda Huggins ran under 24 seconds for the first time in her career to place fourth in the under-18 girls 200 metres in 23.91 seconds. The time was good enough to break Chantel Malone’s four-year old national junior record of 23.97 seconds.
Ms. Huggins’ race had a +0.9 wind reading. Last year, her best time in the event was 24.24 seconds.
In the field events, Tynelle Gumbs won bronze in the discus and took fourth place in the javelin with a throw of 37.90 metres.
Deya Erickson competed in the under-18 girls 100-metre hurdles final for the first time. She finished fifth in 14.32 seconds. She ran a personal best of 14.16 in the semi finals to place third and joined Ms. Huggins and Kyron McMaster as IAAF World Jr. Championships qualifiers. It is the first time the VI has had three qualifiers in the same competition. Her time in the event set a national youth and national junior record.
Lakeisha “Mimi” Warner placed fourth in the under-18 girls 800 metres in 2 minutes and 15.84 seconds.
Tarique “Tweety” Moses had a non-qualifying time of 2:04.23 minutes in the under-20 boys 800 metres.
The under-18 girls 4 x 400 metre team of Lakeisha “Mimi” Warner, Zacharia “Zakie” Frett, Beyonce DeFreitas and Judine Lacey finished in eighth place.
Ms. Lacey dropped the baton and had retrieve it on the back stretch. They finished in 4 minutes and 37 seconds. In a previous race, they took third in their heat with a time of 3:49.60 minutes.
Arianna Hayde finished seventh overall in the heptathlon and set a national youth and national junior record of 3,769 points, after winning her 800-metre heat in 2 minutes and 40.39 seconds. She finished fourth overall in the event.
Akeem Bradshaw missed his under-18 boys long jump personal best by .01 centimetres, when he jumped 6.91 metres to finish sixth, while Kala Penn took 12th place in the under-18 girls triple jump after leaping 11.27 metres.
In the under-18 boys high jump, Tahj Malone cleared 1.90 metres to place ninth overall.
The track and field team arrived back in the territory on Tuesday evening.
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