By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

WITH five members from his Blue Chips Athletics Club on the 2017 CARIFTA Games team, coach Corrington Maycock watched as they returned from Willemstad, Curacao, with four medals over the Easter holiday weekend.

As a two-year-old club headed by veteran coach Ronald Cartwright, Maycock said he was very pleased with what he saw from his members on the 65-member team that represented the Bahamas.

“You preach it all year and one of the principles in my club is that you don’t train for national teams, but you train for college scholarships,” Maycock said.

“I coach them with the idea that national team is just a bonus. They work and continue to work for scholarship opportunities. But to be there to watch them compete can only make you happy as a coach.”

Laquell Harris, a freshman at the University of the Bahamas, won a silver medal in the under-20 girls’ discus as she closed out her CARIFTA career with a personal best of 50.42m (165-5).

Latia Saunders, a native of Harbour Island, picked up the gold in the under-18 girls’ javelin with her toss of 45.29m (148-7). Saunders is a 16-year-old 11th grader at St Augustine’s College and a Carifta rookie.

Acacia Astwood, an 11th-grader at St Anne’s High School, was a late addition to the team, but she rose to the occasion with a bronze in her debut as well in the under-18 girls’ discus with 39.40m (129-3). She’s a former sprinter who made the transition to the throws.

Michaelangelo Bullard moved from playing baseball to throwing the javelin where he won the bronze in the under-18 boys’ division, also posting a personal best 63.84m (209-5) behind compatriot Sean Rolle’s silver with 65.51m (214-11).

Jordan Lewis was 13th in the under-18 boys’ shot put with 14.03m (46-0 1/2) as fellow Bahamian Jalon Dames was 10th with 15.00m (49-2 1/2).

“I was looking for more, but we are home next year, so hopefully we could do it then,” Maycock said. “I’m looking for some better performances.”

Maycock, a medallist in his lone Carifta appearance in the under-17 boys’ division where he won a silver medal in the shot put in 1986, gave a lot of credit to Cartwright, who taught him a lot of things under his tutelage.

“But transferring from his club to my club, I wanted to make sure that these athletes push themselves, not only in the classroom but out there on the field,” he said.

With the Commonwealth Youth Games as the next major international meet to be held here at the Thomas A Robinson National Stadium July 19-23, Maycock said six of his athletes have already qualified, but they will have to perform at the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations’ Junior Nationals in June.

They are Lewis, Saunders, Bullard and Astwood.

“Just based on the numbers and how well they perform, they can and should all make the team,” Maycock projected.

“I’m keeping my fingers crossed that they will all make it.

Also in the summer is the IAAF World Youth Championships in Nairobi, Kenya (July 12-16) and the same four Blue Chips members - Lewis, Saunders, Bullard and Astwood - are in a position to make it, along with Dachye Stubbs.

Additionally, there’s the Pan American Junior Championships (July 21-23 in Lima, Peru) with Harris qualifying at Carifta. She joins Serena Brown, a freshman at Texas A&M, who qualified in one of her collegiate meets.

Based out of Queen’s College, the Blue Chips Club has a total of 20 members, but Maycock said he’s only interested in coaching those throwers who seriously want to improve.

“If the kids want to make this happen, it’s easy,” he said. “The two senior members in the club are Jordan and Laquell, who is now being coached by Bradley (Cooper, coach at the University of the Bahamas).

“I’ve been working with them for about a year and they went to Carifta and medalled. So it’s not like it’s hard. You just have to work hard. A lot of people don’t realise it, but we do everything like all athletes do – run short and long distances, jump and throw in their offseason workout.”

From August 7-12 at Queen’s College, Maycock will be holding his second annual Blue Chips Athletic Throwers Camp when he’s expected to have a couple of college coaches come out and hold the sessions.

Interested persons can contact Maycock for more details.

Maycock said the camp will be important this year as he will be concentrating on the throwers who will have to be making the transition now that Carifta has reverted to the under-17 division to go with the under-20, starting next year here.

“That messed up about five of my athletes,” said Maycock of Saunders, who is from SAC, had the possibility of breaking the under-18 record, but she will now have to go up to under-20.

“I understand what they are doing because Carifta was losing the interest of the girls in the under-20 division. But now the under-17 will be lacking for a year or two. A lot of kids who had the potential to make the team will not make the team. A lot of people will knock them out.”

With the throwers, they will also have to use different size increments from what they are accustomed to, moving from the under-17 to under-20 division.

Maycock said they will have to work harder and, as a coach, he will have to ensure that he does the same to get them prepared for the challenge.