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With curtains officially drawn on the 2022 Carifta Games, Mike Fennell, chairman of the local organising committee (LOC) says the regional sporting extravaganza was a resounding success. 

Fennell, in an interview with Our Today on Tuesday (April 19), ahead of the LOC Carifta assessment, gave his personal views on the developmental meet held in Kingston and its relevance to the future of Caribbean athletics. 

“As you would appreciate, we’ll do a formal assessment very shortly where we will get all the data together, but certainly, we cannot doubt that the Games themselves were a huge success,” he began.

“And what am I basing it on? All events were held [within] the competition schedule, the level of competition was extremely high and the standard of performances was incredible,” Fennell noted.

Fennell sung praises of Team Jamaica’s world-record run in the girls’ U20 4×100 metre relay as the host country swept all four sprint relay events in convincing fashion. 

Also on his mind was the exceptional performance of the British Virgin Islands’ Adeajah Hodge, who copped the Austin Sealy award as the top Carifta athlete.

The senior sports administrator told Our Today he “couldn’t ask for more” and was very impressed that several Carifta records were also broken over the three-day junior athletic meet. 

Considering the many challenges faced by the LOC—chief among them being logistics, ticketing and spectator size caps, all while hosting an event of its calibre after the 2022 Boys’ and Girls’ Championships—Fennell was grateful that Carifta kept the region’s legacy of track and field alive. 

“The whole [events] scene changed considerably over the period of time because we started last year, when there were some very severe restrictions and these were [later] relaxed and certainly that was a concern,” he explained.

“We did not launch a ticket sales programme until fairly late but we could not avoid that because of the circumstances. The regulations related to vaccinated and unvaccinated [spectators], tests or no tests, we had to deal with that right throughout and even during the Games—for visitors and Jamaicans alike. It was important that we keep testing because the COVID-19 pandemic is not over,” Fennell told Our Today.

While acknowledging Jamaica’s continued athletic dominance at Carifta, Fennell said the fact that smaller islands are catching up should be encouraged as it only augurs well for the region.

“When you look at the standard of performance, you will recognise that Jamaica was far ahead of the others in terms of medal winnings but we should not ignore the fact that some of the other smaller countries are coming along very well. Look at what they’re doing in BVI (British Virgin Islands), Antigua, Curaçao, Guyana, and a number of the other countries! Remember that being at home, we had the full slate of athletes, other [Caribbean] countries had limitations due to cost and other factors,” explained Fennell.

“The home team always has the advantage and, yes, we are proud of our athletes, as there is no question about the quality of our young athletes, but we should not fail to recognise the improvement that the others are making in the respective countries,” he noted further.

The LOC was not met with overwhelming praise by social media users, however, many of whom criticised the lack of meaningful promotion of Carifta to attract greater crowds to cheer the young athletes in Kingston’s National Stadium. 

According to Fennell, the time window was too narrow and thus, the regional event could not compete with the marketing behemoth that is Champs. 

Notwithstanding this, he told Our Today, the games did enjoy its highest level of exposure in recent years.

“I think we have to look at the whole marketing aspect [totally]. First of all, we had Boys’ and Girls’ Champs before, and in any marketing, you don’t go head-to-head with a champion product like that. You wait until it is over,” Fennell argued.

“So we had a limited time, less than a week, to really promote [Carifta49] but prior to that, the exposure of the Carifta Games has never been as high as we have had for this one—and remember it’s not just Jamaica, it’s right across the region. The level of awareness was far greater than ever before,” the sports administrator said.

Fennell contended further that track and field enthusiasts must recognise developmental meets such as Carifta do not ordinarily attract viewership in the millions like title events such as the World Junior Atheltic Championships, which makes the regional meet a “hard sell”. 

What is not lost on the wider Caribbean, is the great significance the Carifta Games holds for young athletes. 

“The fact that those who are close know how important Carifta is to the overall athletes’ development and their journey. It is extremely important and this has been confirmed more so last weekend,” Fennell declared.

As The Bahamas begins its preparation for Carifta50, which coincides with that country’s 50th year of independence, Fennell has made several notes for further improving the games. 

“It’s something we have to study very carefully, but just initially, I can tell you that we need to ensure that every event has a full field [of competitors]. This, of course, is dependent on visitor countries coming in, and as you know they may have funding limitations,” he told Our Today, adding that finalising and securing travel arrangements were difficult for several visiting teams. 

“We need to look at some of the weaker events to see how we can help to strengthen them at the domestic level. The other thing is that we need to make sure we fully recognise our athletes; we have to find a way to celebrate the winners in a more relaxed atmosphere,” said Fennell, lamenting the almost breakneck pace of events and medal ceremonies.

The Carifta49 LOC chairman was also buoyed by what he described as the assured future of Caribbean athletics in part one of yesterday’s Our Today interview.

• READ: Carifta 2022 a signal of region’s strong athletic future, says Mike Fennell