Barbados gearing up for CARIFTA

By Morissa Lindsay

The Barbados Federation of Island Triathletes (BFIT) qualifying series for the 2022 CARIFTA Triathlon and Aquathlon Championships concluded on Sunday but the official team has not yet been announced.

President of BFIT, Darren Treasure, said that the federation continues to work on ratifying the names of those who have qualified in addition to ensuring that those once chosen will be able to attend because of the expense to travel in these times. Treasure explained that this year’s championship will be staged in Bermuda and noted that it is quite costly to travel to that country for the September 24th and 25th CARIFTA event.

The President shared that as a governing body they will work towards raising funds in the best possible
way they can.

“We have finished our qualifications and while some of the athletes made the times there are some who didn’t but we will still allow them to compete. So, we are still trying to ratify the team and wouldn’t want to reveal any names just at this moment. But right now, we are allowed to take five people per age group category per gender.

“There are five boys especially we are looking at in the 11 to 12. We would like them all to accept but there are some variables like funding that must be considered for Bermuda. It is quite expensive to get there first of all and at this stage, we don’t have a lot of funding, so the parents are going to have to fundraise and BFIT will see what we can do to help subsidize the cost but nothing concrete as yet,” Treasure told Barbados TODAY.

He added: “So, we are asking parents at this point to make that decision whether they are willing to participate in the fundraising activities and if need be to pull their own pockets because we don’t have any committed funding from the various sources that you would expect. But we are working on that in the background.”

According to Treasure, since the CARIFTA Triathlon and Aquathlon Championships are being held in September, the possibility exists that some of Barbados’ top competitors especially those at Universities may not get to compete because of school commitments.

As president of BFIT, Treasure expressed how happy he feels to see more triathletes from Barbados gain scholarships. “It is really great to see because our athletes work really hard and we try to stay in touch with them and support them as much as we can. They still are developing and obviously, our main desire is for them to accelerate their development and we are really excited for them and the opportunities for being part of the sport is just tremendous.”

Even though BFIT has yet to officially release the names of those who have qualified, there are a couple of definite names that should be on the Barbados team.

The likes of Fynn Armstrong, Barbados CARIFTA Games gold medallist who won the Under-17 Boys 3000m in Kingston Jamaica this year is among those likely to make the grade.

Those overseas at University are Chara Hinds and Niel Skinner and once they have no pending commitments they should fly to Bermuda for competition. There is also Kayla Renwick who recently gained a scholarship.

In the younger division, there is Cain Banfield, Luke McIntyre, Zindzele Renwick-Williams, Laila McIntyre and Hailey Banfield, who are all outstanding junior competitors for Barbados.

So far, the competing countries are reigning champions Guadeloupe, Trinidad and Tobago, Aruba, Jamaica, Bermuda and the Bahamas.

morissalindsay@barbadostoday.bb