Saint Lucia’s track pipeline to Texas grows stronger, with double CARIFTA champion Jady Emmanuel announced Thursday as the latest recruit for coach Edrick Floreal.
Emmanuel follows in the footsteps of multiple NCAA champion indoors and out, Julien Alfred, as well as national junior record holder and former CARIFTA silver medallist, Naomi London. Alfred, now a volunteer assistant coach with UT, enjoyed an illustrious career at Austin. She won individual NCAA titles in the 60m, 100m and 200m events before going on to win Saint Lucia’s first-ever medals at the Olympics, World Championships and World Indoors.
London is yet to run for the Longhorns, after joining them at the end of 2024. The Vieux Fort native, who turns 17 this year, won silver medals in the 100m and 200m at CARIFTA 2023. Last year, she broke Julien Alfred’s national junior record for the 100m.
Hailing from the Morne Paul community in Laborie, the Choiseul Secondary student made history by winning an unprecedented sprint gold at the regional junior championships, and immediately followed it up with a second gold in the 200m. Her Under-17 winning times of 11.50 and 23.47 in Trinidad & Tobago last Easter were the fastest legal times ever produced by a female youth (Under-18) athlete from Saint Lucia.
Presumably, Emmanuel will be able to join London and Alfred in relay training, inching Saint Lucia closer to being able to field an internationally competitive 4x100m team. National record holder for the 100m hurdles, Aasia Laurencin, is training in Florida, and athletes like Mya Hippolyte are also at school in the United States, with at least two other athletes running under 12 seconds over the past 12 months.
Saint lucian is getting out there and congratulations to the young lady 🫡