The Bermuda National Athletics Association (BNAA) has confirmed the dates for the Bermuda National Track & Field Championships, Friday, July 9th @ 5:30 pm and Saturday, July 10th @ 6:00 pm.
Donna Raynor the BNAA President said, “As we are aware, last year we were in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic and restrictions, therefore most countries were given a bye.
There will be three components to this year’s Championships. Friday evening will focus on our young athletes aged Under 10, Under 12 & Under 15 consisting of all athletic and track events. During this event, we will have an Open 1-mile event for all the youth age groups”.
The second component, "Carifta 2020: Our Vision". This segment will begin at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, July 10th. After all of the hours of planning and organizing the LOC believed it would be remiss of us to not display some of the efforts of the committee and the athletes who have been preparing over the past two years. We were looking forward to hosting one of the best Carifta events ever and cannot put into words our disappointment. In lieu of this, we have decided to put together, in pictures and videos, a story to share with all of Bermuda, our journey in preparing for the Games. We will be having a small ceremony honoring our sponsors, past Carifta athletes, a few of our volunteers, officials, and athletes in the Carifta uniforms, providing a visual of what the Carifta Games would have looked like with all of the marketing paraphernalia decorating the National Sports Center.
This event will begin with a baton relay consisting of past Carifta athletes beginning at Stevedoring and finishing at the National Sports Center with former Olympian and Carifta athlete, Brian Wellman. They will then be presented with a commemorative Carifta medal. We will also be honoring two of our Elite athletes; Jah-Nhai Perinchief who placed 2nd in the 2021 NCAA athletic championships in the Triple Jump and Tyrone Smith, Bermuda’s current National Record Holder in the Long Jump, who has represented Bermuda for several years in various international events, including three Olympic Games. He will be retiring from the sport this year.
Both of these athletes are aiming to reach the qualifying standards to represent Bermuda at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and will be competing in our local Championships. We will also be honoring our sponsors by presenting them with commemorative Carifta medals. The LOC contributed two years of intense preparation for these Games and they will also be presented with commemorative medals for all of their hard work and will receive their Carifta uniforms.
The weekend will culminate on Saturday, July 10th with the final component, the Senior National Championships Under 17, Under 20, and Open Divisions, beginning at 6:00 pm. We are excited that several of our overseas & Elite athletes will be featured at the meet, Jah-Nhai Perinchief, Tyrone Smith, Caitlyn Bobb, Nathan Armstrong, Sanaa Rae Morris, Nirobi Smith-Mills, Sakari Famous, Dage Minors, Suresh Black, Taahira Butterfield plus several of our local athletes.
We will be featuring several of our well-known road racers in the distance events and Lamont Marshall competing in the Steeplechase. We will also be inviting 20 overseas athletes to compete with the aim of enhancing the level of competition for our Elite athletes.
This has been a difficult year and a half for our country and our hope is to close out our Track & Field Season with a memorable event. We hope that you will come out and support this event.”
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