Matthew Spring captured his and Bermuda’s second medal at the Carifta Games on Sunday — though team manager Donna Watson admitted yesterday that the gulf in class between Jamaica and the rest of the region had grown alarmingly in the past year.

Spring, the highly-rated middle-distance runner, claimed a silver medal in the boys’ under-17 3,000 metres with a time of nine minutes, 10.62 seconds — almost half a minute behind winner Kemos Campbell of Jamaica.

On Saturday, Spring took bronze in the boys’ under-17 1500 metres in 4.01.04.

Speaking from the Turks and Caicos Islands, Watson said the coaching staff were largely satisfied with the performances of the 16-strong team, who have registered 11 personal bests so far.

But with 56 medals to their name as of press time last night, Jamaica, said Watson, had improved beyond all recognition since last year and had left all other countries trailing helplessly in their wake.

Bermuda won four medals at the 2006 Carifta Games in Guadeloupe and another four at the 2005 Games in Trinidad and Tobago.

“The kids have done very well, but the lack of medals has been down almost exclusively to Jamaica, who have taken the competition to a whole new level,” she said.

“We’ve had 11 personal best so far and in previous years that would have been good enough for many of our athletes to medal.

“But in virtually every single competition the Jamaicans are cleaning up and our personal bests are only really good enough for fourth or fifth.

“Look at Jasmine Brunson in the triple jump. She came fourth overall with a personal best jump of 11.58 metres, which last year would have seen her finish with a medal. But this year, all three of the people in front of her were in excess of 12 metres, so the competition has improved incredibly.

“It’s frustrating not just for us but for all the other islands involved because Jamaica really have moved so far ahead of everybody else that we’ve all been left behind.

“I think we’re going to have to sit down when we get home and discuss the way forward because it’s clear we have a lot of work to do if we want to be challenging for more medals in the future.

“As I said, in other years we would have had six or seven medals by now. The children have tried incredibly hard and there have been some fantastic performances, but unfortunately in most cases it hasn’t been good enough to medal.”

Also on Sunday, Allison Outerbridge equalled her personal best with a jump of 11.17 metres in the girls’ under-17 triple jump to place eighth while in the long jump she equalled her PB to again finish eighth.

In the women’s under-20 200 metres, Eulannae Douglas recorded her personal best of 25.80 seconds to finish near the back of the pack and Jessica Richardson also ran faster than she ever had before in finishing 17th in the girls’ under-17 200 metres with a time of 25.47.

Tre Houston came 12th overall in the boys’ under-20 200 metres with a time of 21.92 while Arantxa King placed fifth in the girls’ under-20 triple jump with a best effort of 12.5 metres.

According to Watson, the former World Youth long jump champion has been struggling with injury and growing pains of late and has been some way below her irresistible best.

King, who carried the flag for the Bermuda team at last year’s Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, finished outside the medals in the long jump on Saturday as well — but Watson said she expected the young star to improve dramatically as the season wore on.

“Arantxa’s really been having a few problems with injuries, her hamstrings have been bothering her and because she’s still growing a lot things are a little off at the moment,” said Watson.

“It’s unfortunate but she came into Carifta just at the end of the healing process and has not performed quite as well as she would have liked, but I think you’ll see her getting better and better throughout the year.”

Meanwhile in the Open women’s 3,000 metres, Alexis Bean placed fifth in a time of 10.53.17 — setting a new national record in the process.

Finishing behind her in ninth place was Ashley Bean in 11.11.00.

Last night’s results from the Turks and Caicos were not available by press time.