T&T’s 2026 Carif­ta Games team be­came the fourth most suc­cess­ful con­tin­gent to par­tic­i­pate in the an­nu­al re­gion­al show­case of ju­nior track and field tal­ent.

From April 4-6, this coun­try’s most suc­cess­ful team since 2007 ac­cu­mu­lat­ed 35 medals, an achieve­ment on­ly dwarfed by Turks and Caicos 2007’s 36, Ba­co­let, To­ba­go 2005’s 37, and the Cay­man Is­lands 2010 record 40 medals.

It’s on­ly the eighth time in the 53-year his­to­ry of the Games that Team TTO has reached or sur­passed 30 medals, an achieve­ment first re­alised at the end of the Port-of-Spain Games of 1998, spurred to 32 at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um in Mu­cu­rapo.

This week­end, 80 miles away at a neigh­bour's home, the 73-mem­ber class of 2026 put them­selves firm­ly in the his­to­ry books.

On the team's re­turn to the coun­try yes­ter­day, team man­ag­er Cuquie Melville gave the recipe for this year's suc­cess.

"We spent the last few weeks in prepa­ra­tion, phys­i­cal, men­tal, and psy­cho­log­i­cal," she ex­plained, "Be­cause we want­ed to make sure we're get­ting in­to our ath­letes mind to be­lieve in them­selves, to be­lieve that they are worth it and that they could go out and per­form to their best, not fo­cus­ing on com­pe­ti­tion but fo­cus­ing on them­selves and the be­lief that they could do any­thing they put their mind to.

"And over the past week­end, our ath­letes proved that, they proved that they could go out there and they could stand up and com­pete against the rest of the re­gion," Melville said.

Na­tion­al As­so­ci­a­tion of Ath­let­ics Ad­min­is­tra­tions of T&T (NAAATT) pres­i­dent Ephraim Ser­rette un­der­lined track and field's im­por­tance in the lo­cal sport­ing land­scape.

"Track and field is the sport that con­tin­ues to de­liv­er; it's the sport that when we trav­el, we bring back the medals to T&T, whether it's re­gion­al­ly or in­ter­na­tion­al­ly," Ser­rette said, not­ing that the coun­try's ju­niors will now turn their at­ten­tion to the NACAC un­der-18 and World Ju­niors.

Min­is­ter of Sport and Youth Af­fairs, Phillip Watts, heaped praise on the young na­tion­al he­roes.

"This is a sig­nif­i­cant mile­stone for T&T's ath­let­ics, and it is a tes­ta­ment to your dis­ci­pline, your sac­ri­fice, your prepa­ra­tion and na­tion­al pride," Watts said at Pi­ar­co on Tues­day. "You have rep­re­sent­ed this coun­try with ex­cel­lence, de­ter­mi­na­tion, and heart; you have made T&T proud."

Medal­lists

Gold: Ny­la Kerr, Sean­nah Par­sons, Aniqah Bai­ley, Tyrique Vin­cent, Tenique Vin­cent, Ki­ile Alexan­der, Michal Paul, Jaa­fari Shaw, Boys Un­der-20 4x100m re­lay (Zacheus Charles, Tre­vaughn Stew­art, Makae­lan Woods, Kae­den Her­bert).

Sil­ver: Jay­den Goodridge, Alexxe Hen­ry, Os­hea Cum­mings, Dar­ius Hard­ing, Pey­ton Win­ter, Omari Brown, Jael Pe­ters, Jen­na-Marie Thomas, Kaori Rob­ley, Boys U-17 4x100m (Chris­t­ian Parks, Jaquan Dou­glas, Dario Tav­ernier, Isa­iah Tees­dale), Girls U-20 4x100m (Imani Mills, Noe­mi Theodore, Za­da Charles, Alexxe Hen­ry).

Bronze: Tan­non Niemey­er, Jquan Dou­glas, Tre­vaughn Stew­art, Za­yne Mar­tin, Tes­si­ca Lau­rence, Kaleb Camp­bell, Jen­na-Marie Thomas, Jaa­fari Shaw, Sean­nah Par­sons, Chel­cia Joseph, Je­re­my Sama­roo, Je­lani Chinyelu, Girls U-17 4x100m (Dai­ja Reid, Jael Pe­ters, Eden Chee-Wah, Xi­ah To­bias), Boys U-20 4x400m (Omari Brown, Makae­lan Woods, Brion Scott, Ki­ile Alexan­der), Girls U-17 4x400m (Os­hea Cum­mings, Ny­la Kerr, Eden Chee-Wah, Soleil Caruth).

Fi­nal medal ta­ble

Rank*Team*Gold*Sil­ver*Bronze*To­tal

1*Ja­maica*28*27*16*71

2*T&T*9*11*15*35

3*Ba­hamas*8*12*10*30

4*Bar­ba­dos*6*3*8*17

5*Guyana*4*1*1*6*

6*An­tigua & Bar­bu­da*2*1*2*5

7*Mar­tinique*2*0*2*4

8*Cay­man*Is­lands*2*0*1*3

9*Grena­da*1*4*6*11

10*Saint*Lu­cia*1*1*2*4

11*Cu­ra­cao*1*1*2*4

12*Bermu­da*1*2*0*3

13*Turks*and*Caicos*1*1*0*2

14*Sint*Maarten*1*0*0*1

15*Do­mini­ca*1*0*0*1

16*Be­lize*1*0*0*1

17*Haiti*0*1*2*3

18*USVir­gin Is­lands*0*1*1*2

19*French Guiana*0*1*0*1

20*British Vir­gin­Is­lands*0*1*0*1

21*Guade­loupe*0*1*0*1

22*St Kitts*and Nevis*0*0*1*1