The National Association of Athletics Administrations of Trinidad and Tobago (NAAATT) will host the Sunshine Development Meet on Friday, May 19 at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Mucurapo.
The meet starts at 5:30pm and will feature 37 events for Youth (Under 18), Junior (Under 20) and Open athletes. The first events on the schedule are the men’s high jump, women’s javelin and men’s discus finals. On the track the first race, the women’s 4x100m, will get under way at 5:35pm.
The meet will allow many of T&T’s top athletes to continue preparing for the upcoming month of Championships in June. The Youth and Junior competitors will be fine-tuning their training for the National Junior Championships (June 10-11) while senior athletes will be action at the Open Championships (June 23-25).
The NAAA took the decision to host the meet after the cancellation of the Relays and Field Events Development Meet and the Hurdles and Events Festival which were carded for May 20 and May 28 respectively. In addition, the non-staging of the annual Hampton Games have left many local athletes short of competition as the Hampton Games usually attracted teams from Barbados, Guyana, Grenada and the USA.
The Youth and Junior athletes will do battle over the 100m, 200m and 400m sprints while the senior ail have additional events on the schedule: 100m/110m hurdles, 400m hurdles, 800m, 1500m (men’s only), long jump, high jump, shot put, discus, javelin, 4x100m, and 4x400m.
Several of T&T’s 2017 Carifta medal-winning contingent are expected to compete including champions Iyanna Roach (girls under 18 shot put), Adell Colthrust (boys under 18 100m) and the boys under 20 4x400m gold medal team of Judah Taylor, Zidan Martin, Jacob St. Clair and Kashief King. Multiple medallists Jerod Elcock (silver-boys under 20 200m/4x400m), Rae-Ann Serville (silver-girls under 18 4x100m, bronze-girls under 18 4x400m) are expected to face the starter.
Olympian Marcus Duncan former and Carifta and CAC Junior champion Hezekiel Romeo have confirmed their participation in the meet while several elite athletes, who are currently at home, may decide to line up at event including former CAC Junior winner medalist Theon Lewis.
