NACAC 2 Email.Pdf
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PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Dear Colleagues: Colleagues, we must do a full evaluation on what we are doing in our region to e must congratulate W be able to reap the successes the Organizing Committee we have achieved at recent of the London Olympic Junior & Senior competi- Games for a job well done. tions and improve on it. We As is the case leading up to must be prepared to share any major event, there were our experiences and to concerns that certain ensure that our programmes aspects of the organization get more support from our was lacking. Fortunately, home countries. To this those concerns proved to be end, I plead with our lead- unfounded. ers to prepare long-term Many persons from all proposals that can get the continents who attended the support of corporate enti- Games were astonished by ties. Without such support the performances of the there will be no improve- athletes from the NACAC ment. region. While much was A special welcome to all expected from the estab- new leaders that have come lished stars from the United on board recently, we wel- States of America, Jamaica come you all and stand and Cuba, we were all over- ready to give the necessary joyed with the successes of assistance you will require. Keshorn Walcott of Let us take a moment to Trinidad & Tobago, the catch a breath before start- stunning return of Felix ing our preparations for Sanchez and the excellent 2013 and I look forward to performance of his col- seeing many coaches at the league Liguelin Santos of annual NACACTFCA meet- the Dominican Republic, ing in the Bahamas. the wonderful effort of On your behalf we extend Yarisley Silva of Cuba in the our sympathies to the fami- Women's Pole Vault, the sub ly of former Sports Minister 44:00 seconds run by Kirani of the Bahamas, Mr. Charles James of Grenada and the Maynard. May his soul rest Bahamas finally getting that in peace. medal in the men's 4x400. It must be recorded that Neville “Teddy” McCook many of the athletes who represented their countries from the NACAC region were trained in their home countries, a tribute to the coaches who prepared them. ! OLYMPIC GAMES NACAC RESULTS Cont’d on page 4 The Caribbean has really stepped RANK COUNTRY MEDALS up its game with 36 medals overall, 1 Grenada 1 distributed among Jamaica, Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago, 2 Jamaica 12 Bahamas, Cuba, Puerto Rico and 3 Trinidad & Tobago 4 Dominican Republic. 5 Bahamas 1 17 Cuba 14 Another outstanding Caribbean 39 Puerto Rico 2 moment was when the 19 year old, 58 Dominican Republic 2 Keshorn Walcott from Trinidad and Tobago, stunned the world by win- ning the men's Javelin competition with an extraordinary throw just short of the current world record. Grenada's Kirani James (c) celebrates winning the men's 400m at the 2012 London Olympic Games. Looking on are at left Belgium's Kevin Borlee and at right his brother Jonathan. REUTERS/Dylan Matinez) Felix Sanchez of Dominican Republic proved critics wrong by showing that he still has 'it' and won the men's 400m hurdles. Other moments were quite as fantastic, and celebrations roared within this Caribbean basin. Trinidad & Tobago's Kershorn Walcott takes his Felix Sanchez of Dominican Republic Gold medal throw in the men's javelin wins the gold medal in the 400m at the 2012 Summer Olympics, in London on hurdles, in front of Michael Tinsley August 12, 2012. of USA who gets the silver medal and Photo: David J. Phillip / AP Javier Culson of Puerto Rico who gets the bronze medal at the Summer Olympic Games 2012 in London. (Source: pacificcoastnews.com) The Bahamian men's 4 x 400 m team convincingly held off all competi- tion to win their well-deserved gold. Bahamas's Ramon Miller, Michael Mathieu, Chris Brown and Demetrius Pinder celebrate their gold medal win in the men's 4x400-meter during the athletics in the Olympic Stadium at the 2012 Summer Olympics, London, Friday, Aug. 10, 2012. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum) The USA landed its biggest medal haul in 20 years at the Olympic Games. The USA once again dis- played it track and field prowess by winning a total of 29 medals in London, well ahead of second place Russia (18). This was the most medals won by the USA in track and field at the Olympics since the 1992 Barcelona Games. Sanya Richards 400m Gold " OLYMPIC GAMES NACAC RESULTS Cont’d from page 3 USA - Women 4x100 World Record Team Shelly Ann Fraser-Pryce Jamaica’s Men 4x100 Relay World Record Team History was made — world and national records were set. New ground was broken because more events were entered, and never before has the Olympic Games seen a competitor with a personality and aura such as was seen with the person- able, irrepressible, magnetic always-on- stage Usain St Leo Bolt. Can you say “To de worl’!”? Usain St. Leo Bolt celebrates his win in the men's 200m final with his signature pose - 'To di worl'!'. Photo: Phil Hillyard # SMALL COUNTRIES $ Great Olympic Performances From Alpheus Findlayson Public Relations Officer, BAAA The performances of countries of the This was Trinidad & Tobago’s best Central American and Caribbean Olympic Games performance since the nations at the 2012 London Olympic Games were simply amazing. Eight countries Jamaica, The Dominican Republic, Trinidad & Tobago, was the first international The Bahamas, Grenada, Cuba, track and field medal for Guatemala, and Puerto Rico captured Grenada. twenty-four medals, with Jamaica win- The Silver medalist in this ning 50% of the total -- four Gold, four event, Luguelin Santos of Silver, and four Bronze. The total for the the Dominican Republic who region was eight gold, seven silver and is just eighteen years old fin- nine bronze. ished in a time of 44.63sec. Once again Jamaica broke the men's THE BAHAMAS 4x100m relay record slashing it from their 37.04sec done at last year's World Trinidadian Keshorn Walcott - enjoying his time in the spot- The Bahamas team of Championships to 36.84sec. light and his gold medal win at the London Olympic Games. Chris Brown, Demetrius Pinder, Michael Mathieu and 1964 Games when they won three medals. This time around they also managed to produce four national records in the process: Jehue Gordon, 400m hurdles 47.96 secs; Keshorn Walcott, Javelin 84.58m; 4x400m men 2:59.40 and 4x100m women 42.31sec. While the Bahamas and Grenada captured one Gold medal each. Kirani James who previously won IAAF World Youth, World Junior, and World Championship titles in the 400m was true to form when he captured the Felix Sanchez of the Dominican Republic Olympic title with a new Central The golden men of the Bahamas sharing a retrieves his grandmother's photo from behind group hug following heir historic his number following his Olympic gold medal run. American and Caribbean record for the 400m victory. event (43.94sec NR, PB), breaking The Dominican Republic won one Gold Cuban Roberto Hernandez' 1990 Ramon Miller finally reached the top of and one Silver. They saw the astonish- record of 44.14sec. The gold medal the podium in the Men's 4x400m relay ing return of 400m hurdler Felix after setting a new national Sanchez, who also stood at the top of record and giving the USA their the podium at the 2004 Olympic Games. first defeat since 1972. Trinidad & Tobago captured one Gold Cuba was able to capture one medal and three Bronze. The highlight Silver medal and one Bronze of T & T's success was the historic gold medal; while Guatemala cap- medal that came from 19-year-old tured one Silver medal and javelin thrower Keshorn Walcott who Colombia one Bronze.. had earlier in 2012 won his event at the Carifta Games, the Central American and Caribbean Junior Championships and the IAAF World Junior Championships. Kirani James participating in one of the London Olympic Games's most touching moments when he exchanged name tags with South African's Pistorious. % SMALL COUNTRIES $ Great Olympic Performances Continued from page 5 CAC vs CARICOM Unfortunately too many times in our region, and defi- nitely at these Olympics, many persons, in addition to the television media that covered the region, stressed only the Caricom countries. We do understand that the broadcast was to the English speaking countries of our region; but those of us who promote the sport of Track & Field in the region stress the Central American and Caribbean region which consists of thirty-five nations, some speaking English, some speaking Spanish, some speaking Dutch, and some speaking French. Maybe at the Rio Games somebody can offer the service to the entire region. Please note that this time around I have not separated Caricom and non-Caricom countries here. Our region was impressive to say the least. It is of note that the world governing body, the IAAF, has taken note of our region for a long time and has adopted sev- eral of our development programs on a worldwide basis. There is a Regional Development Centre in San Juan, which coordinates the development of everybody from coaches, to officials, and athletes in the North American, Central American, and Caribbean Area. They have put money in the High Performance Training Centres in Kingston and Havana, Cuba where several athletes from other countries, even those not in the region, send athletes for development. GUATEMALA’S BARRONDO WINS FIRST OYLMPIC MEDAL Erick Barrondo won the first-ever Olympic medal for Guatemala in the 20k walk when he took home the silver medal in the event.