This year’s CARIFTA Games scheduled for April 23-25 will now be held in Montego Bay, Jamaica after several potential hosts turned down the chance to stage the region’s marquee junior track and field meeting, which is usually held over the Easter weekend.
It would have been the first time in its 39-year history that the CARIFTA Games faced the possibility of being cancelled. The games is the first international exposure for the region’s top junior athletes.
The Bahamas was looking at the possibility of staging the meet, but track and field officials in Nassau took a firm decision recently not to host the event that attracts more than 1,000 athletes, in addition to several officials.
Reports are that The Bahamas had withdrawn their candidature because they had not received a written commitment from the North American, Central America & Caribbean Track & Field Association with less than three months to go before the meet.
Trinidad and Tobago was also being identified as a possible alternative, but Ephraim Serrette, president of the National Athletic Association stated that the twin-island republic is also not in a position to stage the meet.
