Saint Lucia did not add to their medal total on the second day of the 52nd Carifta Games – but Jady Emmanuel continued to shine and a new national junior record was set at the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago.
Emmanuel, the Under-17 girls’ 100m champion, will return to action on Monday evening, aiming for more history after securing Saint Lucia’s first-ever sprint gold on Saturday. Now, she has her sights set on the 200m title.
In Sunday’s preliminaries, she clocked 23.88 seconds – the only athlete to dip under 24 seconds – becoming just the third Saint Lucian female to break that barrier before turning 18. Impressively, she achieved this feat against a stiff headwind.
Emmanuel teamed up with Barbara Marie Maximin, Gabrielle Facey, and Destinee Cenac to finish seventh in the 4x100m relay, with a time of 47.64, leaving the national junior record of 47.58 intact. Isabella Emilienne joined Maximin, Facey and Cenac in the preliminaries. While Emmanuel will move up to the Under-20 division next year, her relay teammates, all aged 15, will still be eligible for the Under-17 category in 2026.
Three of the four athletes who set a new national junior record for the Under-20 boys’ 4x100m could also return in 2026. Ryan Simeon, Micaiah Sobers, Joaqwan Alexander and Levern Jn Baptiste ran 41.67 seconds to qualify for the final of their event.
That shaved two-hundredths of a second off the 41.69 that Lenyn Leonce, Jonathan Celestin, Eldon Charley, and Jerren St Clair recorded at the 2009 Carifta Games. Simeon, Josiah Dupré, Alexander and Jn Baptiste ran 42.67 in the final to place eighth. Of the five, only Jn Baptiste will age out.
Saint Lucia also made rare appearances in the hurdles events. DeAndre Isidore competed in the 400m hurdles Under-17, finishing sixth in 54.82 seconds, whilst Dupre ran the senior intermediate hurdles, finishing 10th overall with a 57.78-second run.
Evann John and Benique Mann ran the Under-20 boys’ 800m heats. John was 11th in 1:58.53, and Mann was 13th in 2:01.13. Maiya Landers was 15th in the Under-17 girls, running 2:24.82. Ryan Simeon was 16th in the 200m, coming in at 22.06 seconds.
Among the field competitors, Barbara Marie Maximin was 11th in the long jump with a 4.91m clearance, and Syesha Rogers cleared 5.06m for 16th in the Under-20 division.
