THE ST. KITTS-NEVIS RELAY TEAM FOR 2017
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There will no doubt be a Team St. Kitts-Nevis at the 2017 IAAF World Relays scheduled for the Bahamas over the weekend April 22 and 23.
We all know that only the 8 teams that make the finals in the 4 x 100m and 4 x 400m will qualify automatically for the World Championships in London in August of this year in addition to 8 others based on ranking. So ONLY SIXTEEN (16) TEAMS WILL BE INVITED. Our men’s 4 x 100m relay team is currently ranked 31 (subject to correction). If you are not feeling uneasy about this, you are not a true track and field fan.
Team SKN won the bronze medal at the 2011 World Championships in Daegu. We were at the Moscow 2013. Back then, there were 24 teams and now it’s only 16.
At the inaugural edition of the IAAF World Relays in 2014, we got the silver medal in the 4 x 200m but that’s not done at Olympics or Worlds. For the 4 x 100m, we were not in the Final 8 neither did we attain a Top 8 ranking so we received no invitation for Beijing 2015. We did have athletes in individual events though. We were in the finals at the 2015 World Relays which qualified us for Rio 2016.
Many countries have upped their game as far as relay competition is concerned and are now making a name for themselves on the world stage.. It is believed that this started happening since the introduction of the World Relays in 2014. Obviously they learnt well from our very own Lonzo Wilkinson who since 2010 or thereabout, took a bunch of guys most of whom never ran sub 10 and made magic. His plan to have a relay team at a global event took years of proper planning.
For those who follow track and field closely, the concern is whether there are plans for our relay team. Maybe there are and they are top secret but if there aren’t, how about using upcoming major meets like Rams Primary, Interschool, even CenPOS, for some exhibition races to see where the guys are at and how they can move forward.
The Grenada Invitational is set for April 9th. Won’t that be an ideal time for Team SKN to get some much needed practice, if there are relays scheduled? Even if there are no relays, is there any way athletes like Antoine, Jason and Brijesh or some of the other hopefuls could join Kim Collins and take part in an individual event. These guys and their coaches are no doubt also thinking about qualifying for Worlds this year especially as it will be much more difficult for the 100m and 200m. The qualifying mark is now 10.12. It was 10.16 for Rio and Beijing 2015. For the men’s 200m, it’s 20. 44. Prior to that, it was 20.55. REMEMBER THAT!
The standard must be achieved by July 23, 2017. By that date also, relay teams that did not make the Finals at the World Relays would have tried their best to have a good enough time to get that invitation.
Couple questions… Who are the athletes? Is there a pool of athletes to choose from? Has a coaching staff already been identified?
It is generally felt that some personal coaches prefer to prepare their athletes to peak at Nationals. Maybe it is true that athletes perform better before their home crowd and so they are likely to do their best time then but we all know what happened at our Nationals last year. The lesson learnt must have been to start thinking about posting excellent times from as early as possible.
Soooooooo, all that Team SKN needs to do is ensure there is PRIOR PROPER PLANNING and we in dey in dey for 2017 and beyond!
