Even though the hype from champs has more or less faded (except for those members of the Wolmerian community who continue to celebrate), the high school track season is far from over. You see Jamaican athletes dont get much break even at the high school level of competition as we have the developmental meets heading up to 'champs' including the biggest pre-champs meet, the gibson relays, and then after champs we have the carifta games and then the season ends with the Penn Relays. The only difference with the level of competition at the Carifta games and that of Champs however is that instead of our athletes competing against each other as rival schools, instead they compete under the banner of Jamaica.

The Carifta games is an annual competition that is organized by members of CARICOM community that basically counts as a caribbean olympics, including numerous track events including both sprint, hurdle, and relay events, and also distance events, it also includes numerous swimming events in the Carifta swim championships which though considered a separate event, really runs at the same time as the athletic meet. Jamaica normally dominates the Carifta athletic events though (after all, we are essentially the athletics capital of the caribbean), and our dominance can be shown wherein for the last 2 years, our closest competitor had 39 medals less than us. The event will this year be held in Grand Cayman and will consist of only 2 classes of athletes being the under 17 and under 20 classes on both the male and female side.

The Jamaican team coached by the Wolmer's head coach who took champs this year is yet again set to dominate the carifta games with our only major competition being in the hurdle and relay events. The gleaner writes that the team consists of top Jamaican sprinters include Julian Forte, Brandon Tomlinson and Kemar Bailey-Cole among the Under-20 boys and Odean Skeen and Odail Todd in the Under-17 division. Danielle Williams, Natasha Morrison and Antonique Campbell head the Under-20 female sprinters while the Under-17s include Kadisha Dallas and Channiel Johnson.

The swim championships on the other hand will take part in Jamaica at the national stadium swimming pool and according to the observer the athletes (under the coaching of Jackie walter) are hoping for at least a 3rd place finish overall, being lead by Dominic Walter, Kendese Nangle, Victoria Ho and Lauren Williams. Our competition is set to come from regional swimmers such as McKayla Lightbourn of The Bahamas, Trinidadians Christian Homer, Cadell Lyons and Kimberly John Williams, and Siona Huxley of St Lucia. All in all the Carifta meets are set to be quite the competitive events and you are guaranteed some upsets and heated competition.

Good luck to team Jamaica!