Seniors performing outstandingly in Utah

By Morissa Lindsay

The performances from the Barbadian track and field contingent competing at the Huntsman World Senior Games in Utah have been incredible so far with a total of 38 medals at the 35th staging of the competition.

Speaking with Barbados TODAY this morning from Utah, United States, Kathy Harper-Hall, a long-standing administrator and track and field competitor for Barbados, said the games so far has been fierce as it relates to competition and this is the first time that the country has fielded as many as 17 track and field athletes.

“Competition is fierce but for some reason or another everybody seems to fear Barbados because we really stand out. And so every race people think Barbados is going to win but the competition is tight and in some cases people have to run heats because as seniors we can’t run two and three times, so what they do is time finals. So, those things are to be taken into consideration and in my age group they are only competing in my age group.

“But some of the age groups have a lot of people in it and like Henderson Rogers, John Brooks for example have a lot of people in their age groups and they all have to fight for a place but they ended up winning gold and silver. Angela Beckles, she has been doing well, she took part in the walk and she got a bronze medal. In the end there were quite a lot of people in her age group, so generally we have our places. We just don’t get them easily,” Harper- Hall said.

Competing in the 80 to 84 age group, Harper-Hall continues to take centre stage and this time it was gold in the 200m and a top performance of 2.01m in the long jump along with silver in the 50m, at the age of 84.

Harper-Hall clearly still has it in her and she told Barbados TODAY that she even surprised herself during competition. “In the long jump I had to struggle and the thing is we never get to practise long jump at home because at the National Stadium the long jump pit is covered up and the long jump runway is all broken up. So, I was not even thinking that I could get to the sand pit but I surprised myself. When I started my first jump was 1.86m and I said to myself ‘oh Lord now, I have to make at least two metres’ which I did and ended up winning at 2.01m.”

Describing the popular Huntsman Games as well organized, Harper-Hall said the team is high in spirits as they promote Barbados as a destination country. Among the 13, 000 people participating in the games, there are 580 in track and field.

She also reflected that preparation became intense as the games approached. “When it came closer to the games our training became more intense but because of the COVID situation we really couldn’t start our training until July and in the case of myself because I was very ill, I did not kick off my training until late August, early September. So, I think that we are doing really well winning a lot of medals, gold, silver and bronze.”

She noted that national competitors Angela Holder and Wendy Barrow-Smith both broke the meet discus records at the Nevada Senior Games before arriving in Utah to compete.

Today was the final day of competition with the 100m and 400m but up to publication time there were no available results. morissalindsay@barbadostoday.bb