Top overseas juniors to compete in Bermuda Track and Field Challenge
More than 150 young athletes will head to Bermuda next month for the Bermuda Junior Track and Field Challenge.
With the excitement created by the USATF Bermuda Grand Prix still being felt on the island after the successful meet at the Flora Duffy Stadium last Sunday, the Bermuda Tourism Authority is hoping to capitalise on the buzz.
Hazel Clark, the BTA's director of global business development and partnerships, is excited by the event on June 23, with the competition set to be streamed live by US service FloSports.
“The junior track and field event will be a partnership with FloSports,” Clark said.
“I have a close friend, Joe Battaglia, who is an executive on their team and I brought the organisers from Speed 4 Sport to Bermuda to experience last year’s track meet.
“They were impressed with our delivery of the Bermuda Games and have decided to partner with the BTA and Bermuda National Athletics Association on a top-level junior track and field event.
Clark also revealed that the Bermuda Grand Prix was well received both at home and abroad
“It was absolutely amazing and I am getting calls from sponsors and national governing bodies congratulating Bermuda for a job well done,” Clark said.
“The athletes are saying its one of the best events they have ever been to and I am so proud of the BTA and BNAA for making the event a reality.
“I am happy to see the event growing. This year we had relays, masters races and, what’s more, the people of Bermuda came out. Most of the athletes had never been to Bermuda, so for sports tourism that's great and we were even on NBC Primetime.
As a result of strong winds on the day, a decision was made to run the sprint races in the back straight as opposed to in front of the packed stands, with former Olympic sprinter Clark revealing it was an easy call to make with a severe headwind potentially having an adverse effect on the runners.
“I had to make the call,” Clark said. “Athletes want to go to events where they can run a good time and we switched so that they didn’t have to run against the wind.
“I was approached during the event and we agreed to switch to the other side of the track. We had a competitive event so it worked out well.”
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