Reigning Carifta Games girls' shot put bronze medallist Ianna Roach was among 14 athletes achieving the required standard to compete at the youth track and field event over the Easter weekend (April 20-22) in the Cayman Islands.
Roach of Memphis Pioneers, who was last year's youth "Sportswoman of the Year", went past the Carifta standard of 13.50 metres for the Girls Under-20 Shot Put on her second throw which measured 13.59m at the trials hosted by the National Association of Athletics Administrations (NAAA) at the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Mucurapo, Port-of-Spain.
The athlete was one of 10 field athletes booking a spot on the national team for the 48th edition of the Games to take place at the Truman Bodden Sports Complex in Grand Cayman.
Christopher Crawford of Tobago Falcons was again in top form during the morning session on day two of the trials, going past the Boys U-20 shot put Carifta standard of 16.10m and also the North American, Central American and Caribbean (NACAC) U-23 Championships (15.30m) with his 16.35m-throw on his sixth and final attempt. The day before, Crawford met the standard in the discus event.
Later on, the top three finishers in the Girls U-17 discus, who got by the qualifying mark of 32.00m. They were Shakera Kirk of Tobago Falcons, who ascended to the top with her final throw, which measured 35.93m, second-place Mercury's Lalenii Grant set the standard early with her opening throw reaching 33.75m and third-place Brianna Percy of Tobago Falcons with 33.56m, her first toss.
In the boys' version of the event, Jayden Scott of Mercury was the lone qualifier with 44.35m, surpassing the 41.00-standard. His two other legal throws were good enough also to qualify him, 42.07m in his opening throw and 41.80m in the fifth.
The Boys U-17 javelin event also had the top two placings, acquiring the required mark (45.00m). Winner Joseph Veayon of Tobago Select go to 53.22m on his first throw. Any of his other three efforts could have qualified him as well including his second (51.73), fourth (47.40) and fifth (47.37m). Thrower Anthony Diaz of Point Fortin New Jets (PFNJ) ended in second place with 47.98m, his last toss. His second attempt, 45.81, also met the standard.
Winner of the Boys U-20 pole vault, D'Abadie's Joel Andrews' 3.70m was good enough to beat the 3.45m-standard.
The first and second place finishers in the Boys' U-20 long jump, Kelsey Daniel and Jaydon Antoine challenged each other from the first round and in the end, both were rewarded with qualifying marks for both the Pan American Junior Championships and the Carifta Games.
Daniel of Kaizen Panthers won with a 7.50m-leap while Antoine of Neon Wolves was second with 7.33m. On Saturday, Daniel achieved the standard in the triple jump.
Over on the track, it was a good day for sprinter Ayla Stanisclaus and hurdlers Tamia Badal and Rinaldo Moore, who made the required times in their respective events.
Stanisclaus of Rising Superstars (Rss) Phoenix lined-up in the Girls U-20 200m (Standard- 24.00) and won in 23.92 in a minus-1.8 wind. She will go for the double at Carifta after emerging one of two qualifiers in the 100m on Saturday. The other sprinter was Akilah Lewis.
Badal, running unattached, won the Girls U-20 400m hurdles in 1:00.40 (Standard- 1:01.50) and Moore of Memphis Pioneers got in with a 56.11-clocking, making the qualifying time of 56.47 in the Boys U-17 400m hurdles.
Fullfilling Athletics' Antonia Sealy was the other qualifier on the day and eased past the qualifying score of 4,000 in the Girls Open Heptathlon. She topped six of the seven disciplines in the event including 100m hurdles (788), high jump (666), 200m (790), long jump (697), javelin (618) and 800m (540) and earned 549 for her second place finish in the shot put for a total of 4,648.
This reigning youth "Sportswoman of the Year" Shaniqua Bascombe did not make the qualifying time for the Girls U-17 200m (24.15) but did meet the NACAC U-18 standard of 24.90 after crossing the line in 24.43 in the preliminaries then 24.36 in the final.
Taejha Badal (Unattached) joined Bascombe as a qualifier for NACAC, clocking 24.67 in the preliminary round.