Sprinter Caitlyn Bobb put on a good showing at last evening’s Bermuda National Championships in her build-up to this month’s Commonwealth Games winning the 100 and 200 metres as well as being a part of a winning 4 x 100 relay team.

“It feels nice to be able to run in front of my family, people that support me, on home soil even though I don’t reside here,” said Bobb, who was born in the United States to Bermudian mother Dawnnette Douglas, a sprinter herself, who represented the island at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain.

Bobb, a student at the University of Maryland, recently competed in the Bahamas National Championships along with Tiara DeRosa, Jah-Nhai Perinchief, Sakari Famous and Stephan Dill, winning the under-20 100 metres and placing fifth in the 200 metres.

Now she is looking forward to representing Bermuda at the Commonwealth Games, in Birmingham, England, at the end of this month.

“I feel very excited, it’s going to be one of my big meets with the pros,” said Bobb, who will be competing in the 400 metres, which she says is her best event.

“I’m still only 19 and competing in the under-20 category and to be able to represent Bermuda with the times I’m running, it’s going to be very interesting. I’m very excited and looking forward to it.”

In the 200 she clocked a winning time of 14.16sec to finish comfortably ahead of Ketura Bulford-Trott and Sanaa Morris, two of her relay team-mates.

In the 100 she recorded a time of 11.98 to finish just ahead of Za’Kayza Parsons in 12.46 and 15-year-old J’Naz Richards in 12.85.

Another college student, Nirobi Smith-Mills, claimed victory over Sancho Smith in the under-20 800, clocking 1min 55.11sec to edge out his nearest rival who had a time of 1:56.79.

“It was good tonight, though I’m not feeling the greatest, my legs are a bit tired from a pretty long season,” explained Smith-Mills, a student at Nottingham Trent University. “I thought I would go out in the front and try to control it and see what I had in the last 150 metres to get the win. After being in England and running 1:50, 1:55 is pretty comfortable.

“I would have liked a bit of competition, initially when I found out a lot of people were running I was hoping to run a 1:49 and get a personal best, but obviously not everything goes your way. The 800 is definitely my race!”

Smith-Mills was hoping to compete in the 800 against Dage Minors who used all his energy in the 1,500 earlier, winning comfortably.

Tiara DeRosa had a winning throw of 46.20 metres in the discus, just under the 47.57 metres she threw in Bahamas to win the event. She is also a member of the Commonwealth Games team.

“Preparations are going pretty well, we’re seeing pretty good results as far as consistency,” said the 24-year-old. “In the Bahamas, it was better angles and today it was better footwork. I competed against two Bahamian throwers, their national champion and a senior athlete as well.”

Devon Bean, the national coach, was pleased with the level of competition as the championships were condensed into one day instead of continuing today.

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“I loved the turnout, there were some pretty good performances, it’s been a pretty long season,” he explained.

Perinchief won the triple jump while high jumper Famous, the other member of the Commonwealth Games team, did not compete as she was ill.

“Jah-Nhai is just staying competition sharp, that’s why he only took a few jumps,” Bean added.

“There were fantastic results for some of the younger athletes, our future is bright.

“I’m very pleased with the turnout and the enthusiasm of the crowd and would like to thank the volunteers for helping to pull this off.”