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Serrette satisfied with Carifta haul

EPHRAIM Serrette, president of the National Association of Athletics Administration (NAAA), has described this country’s 20 medal haul at the 2013 Carifta Games in Bahamas as “remarkably satisfactory”.

TT grabbed eight gold medals, two silver and 10 bronze to finish third in the standings behind overall champions Jamaica (68) and Bahamas (31) respectively.

Serrette noted that although the team fell two short of last year’s aggregate of 22 medals (six gold, nine silver and seven bronze), they were able to win more gold medals this time around which is always a plus.

“I think we had a remarkably satisfactory performance. We were two short of last year (among medals) but we had more gold than last year. Quite a few of athletes who didn’t medal for us did Personal Bests. It’s a good performance based on the direction we’ve been heading. We just have to continue our development projects,” he declared.

Meanwhile, the NAAA boss paid special mention to Under-20 double gold medallist Mark London as well as Under-20 400m champ Machel Cedenio.

“The double gold by London was excellent but when you talk about outstanding performance it has to be Cedenio in the 400m. His execution of the race was perfect...All the gold medals were impressive including the double gold by London. It’s no easy feat to compete in two events in three days especially 800m and 1500m. That was a great feat by him,” Serrette remarked.

He also expressed pleasure with the way the TT haul was relatively balanced among the different disciplines.

“We had a good spread. In the jumps we had three medals, four in the throws, four in the hurdles, four in the middle and long distance races and five in the sprints. The spread across the disciplines is not bad and the people in our field programme did us proud,” he added.

Meanwhile, the NAAA head revealed that he has noticed a drop in medals by Jamaica and Bahamas compared to last year which indicates to him that the other islands are becoming more competitive.

He also commented on the change in age grouping which will take effect in next year’s competition.

Instead of the customary Under-17 and Under-20 divisions, there will be Under-18 and Under-20 age groups in keeping with IAAF standards.

“This will give athletes a better opportunity to make the transition from junior to the senior age groups. Sometimes athletes find it difficult from one rank to another,” he pointed out.

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