Bermuda teams head to overseas events
A trio of Bermuda track and field teams leave the Island today for top overseas competitions, writes Stephen Wright.Senior athletes Aaron Evans (800 metres), Tre Houston (100 and 200 metres), Arantxa King (long jump), Jasmine Brunson (triple jump), Ashley Berry (3,000 metres and steeple chase), Shianne Smith (heptathlon) and Tamika Williams (1,500 metres) will head to Moreilla, Mexico for the CAC Senior Championships which run from July 5 to 8.Talented teenagers Kyrah Scraders (800 and 1500 metres), Justin Donawa (triple jump), Tahari Butterfield (100 and 200 metres) and Kidane Callender (100 and 200 metres) are flying to the Ukraine for a training camp ahead of the World Youth Championships.There is also a local team heading to Kazan, Russia for the University Games which starts on July 7. Bermuda’s team is Taylor Ashley Bean (800 and 1500 metres), Allison Outerbridge (triple jump), Shaquille Dill (400 and 800 metres) and Henry Stevens-Carty (400 and 800 metres).Donna Watson, Bermuda National Athletics Association (BNAA) president, said: “The University Games consist of multiple sports and begin on July 7 with our last athlete competing on July 12.“We are excited about this team as these are some of our outstanding university students who have been competing well during this season.“We are looking for some great performances from them. We were only allowed two females and two males therefore we had to send some to the University Games and the others are competing at the CAC Senior Championships. We are looking for great things from all three travelling teams.”Meanwhile, promising track and field youngster Zekiah Lewis finished an impressive second overall in her age category at the CAC Age Group Championships in Curacao at the weekend.Lewis, competing in the 11-12 girls’ age group, placed first in both the high jump and long jump and third in the 60 metres, scoring 2773 points.Her team-mate Mikaela Outerbridge came 30th overall with 2104 points, finishing third in the 800 metres.Watson said: “This was a great competition for Zekiah which we felt it was going to be, as she does well in multiple events during our local competitions.“We are looking at Zekiah becoming one of our top heptathletes in the future.”In the boys’ 11-12 age group, Sean Tatem placed 26th overall with 2642 points; Symir Lowe-Darrell finished 16th in the 13-14 girls age group with 3586 points and Syriah Lottimore finished 22nd with 3510 points.Elisha Darrell came 20th overall in the 13-14 boys’ age group with 4504 points, while Sean Tucker placed 32nd with a total of 3859 points.Watson added: “Our young athletes performed well and did Bermuda proud.”