For the last 42 years the annual CARIFTA Games has been a rite of passage for most Bahamian track and field athletes. Most of our athletes have participated at the CARIFTA Games. The trajectory of success started just before our islands became a nation at Easter in 1973 when Peter Pratt won the country's first CARIFTA medal, a bronze in the triple jump in Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago. The medal count climbed from then to four in 1974 in Kingston, Jamaica, eight in Bermuda in 1975, 25 in New Providence in 1976 and 43 in Bermuda in 1980 when the country won the meet for the first time.

We captured the 1981, 1983, and 1984 CARIFTA Games, with an unbelievable 58 medals in 1984. At the games in Barbados in 1985, The Bahamas captured 44 medals - six gold, 17 silver and 21 bronze. Since then, the numbers have not been encouraging, even with the increase in the number of events. In 2012 in Bermuda, The Bahamas won more than 40 medals for the first time since 1985. In New Providence in 2013, the number of medals dropped to a little over 30.

Selection Standards for CARIFTA Games
For quite a long time, the standard set by the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations (BAAA) for being selected to the Bahamian team was the achievement of the time or distance of third place or better for an individual event from the previous CARIFTA Games. Once you had been selected to the team for an individual event, it was the responsibility of the coaching staff to assign athletes to other events, including relays.

Over the years, this standard remained but some athletes who had just come close to the standards were selected. There had been, for years, much discussion on this matter and some suggested that the committee should have returned to the principle of selection of only athletes who had made the standards. In 1991, the BAAA made the decision to select only athletes who had made the standards and the number of medals did not change from 1990. It meant less expenditure for the same results.

Central American and Caribbean Junior Championships, Morelia 2014
At the CARIFTA Games in Martinique in 2014, the country failed to win one individual gold medal and finished seventh overall. The BAAA decided to return to the strict qualification rules at the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Junior Championships in Morelia, Mexico in July of 2014. It was a complete turnaround as The Bahamas captured a number of gold medals. With this success, the BAAA decided, and coaches agreed, that they would go back to this strict qualification method. Parents also bought in to this new system.

A Step in the Right Direction
Under this system, 53 athletes were selected to The Bahamas team, nearly 30 less than the 2014 team. It is believed that athletes were no longer hungry to make The Bahamas' CARIFTA team and the results showed. One of the challenges in the past was the fact that The Bahamas Government had provided a charter flight to the games and since the plane was available, it was thought that the aircraft should have been filled, even if some of the athletes did not qualify.

We often think of CARIFTA as the "be all and end all" of our athletic program, and when the summer comes and money is needed for other teams, it is hard to find. CARIFTA is only one of the many competitions we have signed on to. The emphasis should now be concentrated on excellence. The BAAA has now put the "bar" up and athletes who wish to make the team have to raise their goals also.

Goals
The British men's IAAF World Cup team visited The Bahamas in 1992, about six weeks after the Barcelona Olympic Games. The stopover in The Bahamas was an incentive given by British Athletics. The team stayed at the Nassau Beach Hotel and near the front desk was a list of the qualifying standards for the 1993 Stuttgart IAAF World Championships.

The team was made up of Olympic and World Champions like world record hurdler Colin Jackson, 100 meters (m) gold medallist Linford Christie, and triple jumper Jonathan Edwards, who would break the world record three years later in Gothenburg, Sweden. Many would say that these world-class athletes were self-motivated but the list placed near to the front desk, in view of the athletes as the came in and when they left the hotel, was powerful. Bahamian athletes can benefit likewise, cementing qualifying standards in their brains.

Ingredients for Success
Whether it is a junior competition like CARIFTA or the CAC Junior Championships, there are some basic ingredients for success. Most important is the education and experience of coaches. This education should include knowledge of nutrition, exercise physiology, fitness and psychology for athletes.

In 1987 at the IAAF World Championships in Rome, this writer observed teams with sports psychologists. This has been noted since then, nearly three decades later, but The Bahamas has made no significant move on this. The time has now come for us to embrace sports psychology. Some action has started on exercise physiology and fitness recently and this is to be commended. More coaches and other team personnel need to sign on to this initiative.

Talent Search
In 1975, four decades ago, when The Bahamas was given the opportunity to host the CARIFTA Games for the first time, coaches were sent all over the Family Islands to recruit athletes they felt could make the CARIFTA team. The number of medals jumped from eight in 1975 in Bermuda to 27 in New Providence in 1976. Talent search is as important now as it was 40 years ago.
This should be the responsibility of the BAAA. We have done it before and can do it again. The groundwork was set four decades ago. The government and private sector can assist with the talent search but the BAAA should spearhead it.

Austin Sealy Awards
The Bahamas has won the Austin Sealy Award, for the Most Outstanding Athlete of the CARIFTA Games, seven times - MaryAnn Higgs in 1978, Lavern Eve in 1981 and 1983, Pauline Davis-Thompson in 1984, Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie in 1995, Anthonique Strachan in 2011 and 2012, and Shaunae Miller in 2013. We do have the talent that caused German sports historian Michael Preisinger to dub us "Small Country, Great Athletes".

What's Next?
Many athletes fall through the cracks due mostly to a lack of follow-up. Once an athlete is identified, especially if they were members of national teams, every effort needs to be made to keep them in the program, wherever in the world they are. It does not take a "rocket scientist" for this. We all look forward to the success of this year's CARIFTA Games Track and Field team.

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