EDUCATION, SPORTS, GENDER & YOUTH AFFAIRS

Team Antigua and Barbuda travels to Cayman on Friday April 2, 2010. Every success is wished to the Team of officials and athletes. Follow the performance of our athletes on the official website; http://www.carifta2010.ky/

BRIEF HISTORY OF THE CARIFTA GAMES

The CARIFTA Games is an annual junior athletics  competition founded by Barbadian Austin Sealy in 1972.

 The Games has its origins in the Caribbean Free Trade Association (CARIFTA), which was made up primarily of countries from the Englsh-speaking Caribbean.

In 1972, when the CARIFTA was enlarged to include non-English speaking countries of the Caribbean, namely the French and Dutch speaking nations, and became known as CARICOM, Sealy inaugurated the CARIFTA GAMES.

The Games consists of most of the Track & Field disciplines involving running, jumping and throwing and has two age-group categories, namely Under 17 and Under 20 for both males and females.

The Games are meant to enhance relationships between the countries and impress upon all the commonality of purpose shared between Caribbean Islands states, albeit that it includes the non-Island nations of Guyana and Belize, both of which are nonetheless touched by the Caribbean Sea. To date there is no Spanish-speaking Caribbean nation taking part in the Games.

The Games, run entirely under IAAF Rules, are traditionally staged over the Easter weekend in each year in one of the member states of CARICOM. The timing of the GAMES is to facilitate the school calendar of the young athletes.
Source: