Bermuda athletes set for National Championships

The island’s top young athletes will take centre stage for this weekend’s Track and Field National Championships at the National Sports Centre.

Bermuda’s top elite competitors — the likes of Olympic long jumper Tyrone Smith, 800m runner Aaron Evans and heptathlete Shianne Smith — will not be present.

Instead it will up to the likes of Carifta Games medallists, Kyrah Scraders, Sakari Famous and Juma Mouchette, to seize the opportunity to showcase their talents when the action gets under way on Friday at 5:30pm (Saturday starts at 3:30pm).

Bermuda National Athletics Association president Donna Watson also believes the middle distance races will be fiercely competitive, with Dage Minors coming off a stellar season for St Johnsbury Academy high school.

She told the Bermuda Sun: “Dage is running well and his times are coming down and he’s now getting ready to go to university so that’s exciting.

“He’s had a great year and has his runs from 400m all the way to 1,500m so there will be good competition between Shaquille Dill, Juma and him.”

Dill has just run a new 800m personal best — 1min 49.38 at the final New Balance Boston Twilight Meet — so will be the man to beat.

The only regret for Watson is that he won’t get the chance to go up against Evans.

She said: “Shaquille is running really well, if Aaron was here it would have been good to see how he would have done. It’s the same for Bruce Degrilla — it would have been great for him to jump against Tyrone. It helps to go up against these athletes.

“But even though we are not going to have some of the top athletes coming back, it’s still going to be a great meet and a great competition so I am looking forward to it.”

Scraders, Taahirah Butterfield and Justin Donawa will use the meet as preparation for the World Youth Championships, while Kidane Callendar, Micaiah Robinson and Antonio Bailey are only seconds off the qualifyting standard.

Some of the young athletes are also still preparing or trying to qualify for the East Coast Invitational overseas event, while many of the Island Games squad will use this weekend as part of their preparation.

They include Rose-Anna Hoey and Ashley Estwanik, sparking the possibility of a May 24 rematch, when Hoey shocked her friend and rival.

Watson said that while it is disappointing there won’t be overseas competitors here like last year, saving money to allow Bermuda’s athletes more international experience was more important.

She said: “We have so many international meets this summer, so we really can’t bring these athletes home. All the international meets are in Europe so the cost of their tickets are high — our focus has to be on getting our athletes out of here to the international events. We don’t want to disappoint our athletes by running out of money.”