by Terry Finisterre
The 11-member Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States garnered a total of 32 medals at the CARIFTA Games, held at the Kirani James Athletics Stadium in St George’s, Grenada, over the Easter weekend, 30 March to 1 April.
The region’s junior athletes, aged 19 and under, collected four gold medals, 12 silver, and 16 bronze. Eight OECS countries got medals.
As a collective, the OECS would have finished third in the medal standings, behind perennial powerhouses Jamaica and The Bahamas.
Leading the way was the home territory, Grenada. As was the case when the Spice Isle last hosted this meet, in 2016, home cooking yielded 13 medals.
This time around, though, there was just one gold medal, which went to Chrystophe Calliste in the Under-17 boys triple jump, as his best effort of 14.67m earned him the top spot in that event.
Crowd favourite Kemron Mathlyn got silver in the U17 boys 400m, as did D’Angelo Brown in the U20 800m, Timothy Greenidge in U20 boys high jump, Jamaica-based Jaylon Calder (U20 shot put), Rayvohn Telesford (U20 javelin throw), and the quartet of Elisha Williams, Joshiem Sylvester, Cheffonia Houston, and Kemisha Dominique in the mixed 4x400m relay.
Sylvester earned bronze in the U20 boys 400m, as did Deandre Bristol in U20 boys shot put, Alliah Gittens in U20 girls javelin throw, Annalisa Brown in U17 girls 800m, Delron John in U17 boys javelin throw, the foursome of Mathlyn, Kimol Murray, Jayden Knight, and Adriekl Mitchell in U17 boys 4x400m, and the combination of Shaquane Toussaint, Emilio Bishop, Taigon Peterkin, and Samuel Green in the U20 boys 4x100m.
There were 10 championship records at the Games. Three of those involved OECS athletes.
In the U17 javelin throw, Antigua and Barbuda’s Maliek Francis led an OECS medal sweep with a 68.84m mark, ahead of Jaheem Clarke, representing Saint Kitts and Nevis, and John of Grenada. Jackie Hyman of Guadeloupe improved on her bronze medals from 2022 and 2023, her 55.06m performance in U20 girls discus throw earning her the gold medal.
And Saint Lucia’s Naya Jules got gold in the U20 girls pole vault for the second year in a row, her 2.90m clearance giving her a share of gold, with countrywoman Alexandra Johnson getting the bronze.
Also on the medals table were Martinique (two silver, two bronze), the British Virgin Islands and the Commonwealth of Dominica (one bronze medal each).
