Grenada's Lindon Victor, the 2016 NCAA Division I
Decathlon champion who has qualified for the Rio Olympic Games and is ranked #8
on the IAAF list, will be among several Olympic bound athletes competing
TORTOLA-Organizers are expecting 150 visiting athletes and
officials for the 2nd OECS Track and Field Championships scheduled
for Tortola on July 2-3, at the A. O. Shirley Grounds, with non OECS member
Puerto Rico's Women's 4x100m Relay team seeking to solidify their #16 ranking
for the Rio Olympic Games.
The Bahamas and Trinidad and Tobago, have also shown
interest, with the Bahamas looking at its Women and Men's 4x100m and Women's
4x400m and Trinidad and Tobago's Women's 4x400m Relay squad.
The meet, which will be the final opportunity to qualify for
the Rio Olympic Games for the region's athletes will also be a tune up for the July
15-17 NACAC U23 Championships in El Salvador and the IAAF World Jr.
Championships in Poland, will also showcase more than a dozen Olympic Games
qualifiers.
Teams from Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, St. Kitts-Nevis,
Montserrat, Dominica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada and host
BVI, will be battling for the overall team title. There will also be a women
and men's title at stake.
Grenada will feature 2016 NCAA Decathlon Champion Lindon
Victor along with his brother Kurt Felix-the 2012 NCAA Decathlon champion-competing
in individual events. Both have qualified for Rio with Victor ranked at No. 8 with
8446 points and Felix at No. 13 with 8302. Their lineup also included Carifta
Games Javelin Throw Record holder Anderson Peters-who broke 2012 Olympic
champion Keshorn Walcott's meet record with a heave of 78.28m on his home soil
in March. Female equivalent Candesha Scott who threw the spear 51.13m, will be
trying to improve her mark.
The women's High Jump will feature the St. Lucian pair of
Jeanelle Schepper and Levern Spencer-both currently ranked among the top 15 jumpers
in the world-with marks of 1.96 and 1.95m respectively. They will be joined by
Antigua and Barbuda's Priscilla Frederick who had a 1.91m best.
The meet's Most Outstanding Male Athlete will walk off with
the Joseph "Reds" Perreira Award, named in honor to the founder of the OECS
Championships while the Female Athlete of the Meet will take home the Veda
Bruno-Victor award, in honor of the longtime regional administrator.
St. Kitts-Nevis 10.03/20.41 Olympic sprinter Antoine Adams,
and his 4x100m Rio bound relay teammates, will lead their squad that also
includes OECS Record holder Tameka who has a 23.05 seconds 200m season's best. Adams
will find Antigua and Barbuda's Daniel Bailey with a 10.09 season best and Montserrat's
Julius Morris, an NCAA 200m semifinalist with a 20.52 best this season will set
up the sprinting fire works.
Dominica's Dillon Simon and the BVI's Eldred Henry will do
tango in the Shot Put, where the strong men have seasons bests of 19.18m and
19.39m respectively.
Tahesia Harrigan-Scott-coming off a season's best of 23.24
seconds in the 200m victory in Belgium and 11.39 seconds in the 100m and Ashley
Kelly who has a 23.17 seconds 200m time this season, will lead the BVI sprint
corps. Chantel Malone will lead the female field events charge in the Long
Jump, after a 6.48m victory in California last weekend and has a 6.66m seasons
best.
Harrigan-Scott, Kelly, Malone and Karene King, will seek to
improve on their 44.05 seconds time against the Puerto Rican quartet of Beatrice
Cruz, Genoiska Cancel Celiangely Morales and Carol Rodriguez, will seek to
match their 43.55 seconds run in Rio last month.
Many of the OECS Championships Meet Records are expected to
be destroyed as well as several BVI All Comers Records.
Grenada's Lindon Victor, the 2016 NCAA Division I
Decathlon champion who has qualified for the Rio Olympic Games and is ranked #8
on the IAAF list, will be among several Olympic bound athletes competing