Cameron Adkins became the third Bermudian athlete to qualify for the Carifta Games at the latest Bermuda National Athletics Association track meet at the Flora Duffy Stadium at the weekend.

Competing in the 3000 metres, Adkins crossed the line in a winning time of 9min 57.19 sec, less than a second inside the Under-17 male qualifying standard of 9:58.

In doing so he joined Jaeda Grant, who became the island’s first athlete to qualify in the 1,500 metres in December, and Elise Dickinson, who reached the 200 metres standard in advance of the 50th Carifta games in Nassau Bahamas in April.

“Cameron Adkins joined Jadea Grant and Elise Dickinson in becoming the third athlete eligible for the Carifta games in Nassau Bahamas by surpassing the BNAA’s standards for the competition in the 3000m,”

“Cameron is coached by Jay Donawa and I have watched their training sessions since September. Cameron is not only a great athlete, but he is also a positive young man that trains hard every day with a smile, said Freddie Evans, the Bermuda National Athletics Association president.”

“We are all really happy for Cameron and his family.”

Having already qualified in the 1.500, Grant narrowly missed out on also hitting the qualification time in the women’s 800 metres, clocking a winning time of 2:23.31, just outside the standard of 2:23.

Another athlete who came close to qualifying was Miles Outerbridge, who won the Under-17 male 200m race in 23:06, missing the standard by 0.16 seconds. He also missed out in the 100m, which he won in 11:57, 0.37 seconds outside of the Carifta standard of 11:20.

While falling short of securing qualification, there were also a number of encouraging performances at the meet, with athletes showing potential to meet the required times.

Among them, Pria Wilson won the Under-17 girls 100m in 13:17, ahead of J’Naz Richards in 13:29, with the standard set at 12:35. In the 200m, Lashee Jones claimed victory in a winning time of 26:79, ahead of Wilson (26:86) and Saniya Place (27:65), all a little way off the Carifta standard of 25:25.

There was also victory for Fenella Wightman, who won two gold medals at the Carifta Aquathlon in November, in the Under-17 girls 3,000 metres in a time of 12:09.88, comfortably ahead of Daria Desmond in 12:20, but both some way off the qualification time of 11:10.

Meanwhile, J’auza James, who is trying to qualify for the Carifta Octhalon, competed in four separate events.

He clocked 11.86 in the 100m and 2:03.61 in the 800m, while also managing 39.54 metres in the javelin and 5.29 metres in the long jump.

With a lack of competition ahead of the qualification date of March 10, BNAA have loosened the requirement to meet standards with James needing to demonstrate he can compete in four events a day with the ability to score more than 2,000 points.

While his performance on Sunday would have only earned him 1,554 points, with the 800m not an accredited octathlon event, Evans is confident that James is capable of running a five-minute mile, which would have been enough for him to surpass the 200- point mark.

“We can project that he is capable of running a five-minute mile and if he had done a 5:10 mile on Sunday he would have earned 500 points which would put him over the 2,000 point per day goal,” added Evans.

“His best events are usually the high jump, 1,500m and 400 but he generally had a good performance yesterday.”