By RENALDO DORSET

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

WITH a focus on fielding individual qualifiers and not fielding the maximum number of team members, the 2015 CARIFTA Track and Field team is expected to prove the Bahamas is “still a force to be reckoned with,” according to its head coach.

The team will be led by coach John Ingraham of the North Andros Seminoles who said he has high expectations for his team.

“I think we can expect tremendous and terrific things from this group. This group is very determined and driven on this year’s meet. These are all qualifiers and we expect them to excel. This team is going to prove to the Bahamas that we are still a force to reckon with at CARIFTA. This crew right here is focused, driven and you get the sense from being around them that they expect to go to St Kitts and achieve great things.”

The BAAA had indicated that only athletes selected for individual events, who attain the qualifying standards, would be making the trip to St Kitts & Nevis for the biggest junior regional meet over the Easter Holiday weekend, April 3-7.

“I think it’s a brilliant idea, it will force us as coaches to raise our level of what we do and the athletes will know now that we cannot settle but truly only the best of the best will be able to go and that is the way it should be,” he said. “With this in place I feel it moves us a step closer to being on par with the top teams in the region like Jamaica.

As a former athlete, Ingraham said he was able to grow and now he’s imparting his knowledge onto the athletes to help take them to the next level.

“I’m going to lead these kids with a lot of energy and determination and I want to help motivate them to bring back medals to the Bahamas,” he said. “I see a lot of potential athletes with the potential to win those medals.”

Ingraham will be assisted by Bernard Rolle, Dawn Johnson, Sandra Laing, Wendell Collie, Corrington Maycock and James Rolle. David Charlton has been added as a consultant to the coaching staff.

The team will be managed by Doris Rolle-Ramsey, of the Bahamas Association of Certified Officials.

“We feel that this team is a very strong team. We indicated earlier that we were going with individual qualifiers and we did just that, as it relates to our individual events,” said BAAA president Mike Sands. “Every athlete that has been named to this originally, as we stated now, are all those who would have qualified in their individual event.

At last year’s CARIFTA Games in Martinique, the Bahamas’ only gold medal came from the under-18 4 x 100 metre relay team of Kinard Rolle, Tyler Bowe, Keanu Pennerman and Javan Martin to go along with the eight silver and 10 bronze for a total of 19 medals. That placed the Bahamas seventh on the medal chart that was topped once again by Jamaica with 89, inclusive of 42 gold, 34 silver and 13 bronze.

Trinidad and Tobago finished second with six gold, seven silver and 12 bronze for a total of 25 and Barbados rounded out the top three with 16 medals after they collected five gold, five silver and six bronze out of the field of 25 countries that participated in the three-day meet.

“CARIFTA is usually based on medal count. We’ve slipped a notch from last year and I think that has been a wake up call for us in all areas,” Sands said. “I think the coaches and the athletes all heeded the call in getting our athletes qualified.

The annual CARIFTA Games, according to Sands, has been the biggest regional junior track and field championships, which has produced many of the top athletes in the world and is revived by the International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) president Lamine Diack, who has indicated that since coming to his first games in 2002 in the Bahamas, he won’t miss another one and is expected to be in St Kitts and Nevis this weekend.