Track Ledger

Category : COMPETITION


20 December 2009	Essex County's Coach Smart Has Caribbean Pipeline 5 By American coach Michael Smart, the East Orange, New Jersey native and Essex County College (Essex) graduate has been coaching track and field at his alma mater for more than 24 years. In addition to his coaching duties at Essex, Coach Smart has coached teams from the Caribbean islands of Trinidad and Tobago (T&T), St. Vincent & The Grenadines as well as the USA’s 2001 under-25 National Team. He is certified by both the USAT&F (Level 1) and the IAAF. More than 27 of his current and former athletes have represented countries such as Jamaica, Barbados, Grenada, Bahamas and T&T. During his tenure at the helm at Essex, Smart was named National Junior College Coach of the Year an impressive four times and was honored by the NJCAA Region XIX three times. His women’s teams have won the NJCAA National Championship twice (1997, 2000) and placed second nine times. His track program has a 98% graduation rate and over 90%....
07 January 2010	Grenada's Kirani James Enrolls at University of Alabama 5 By Kirani James is now a Crimson Tide. The 17-year-old Grenadian and reigning World Youth 200m (21.05 secs) and 400m (45.24 secs) champion, has enrolled into the University of Alabama and will be competing in this Indoor track season. James became the first youth athlete to complete a 200m/400m double gold at the 2009 IAAF World Youth Championships. Competing at the CARIFTA Games for the third time in 2009 and for the first time in the Under-20 division, James ran a scorching 45.45 to erase Usain Bolt's six-year-old championship record of 46.35. At the University of Alabama, James will be coached by Harvey Glance, who was the head coach of the USA’s 2009 Berlin World Championships team and the sprint coach of the USA’s 2008 Beijing Olympic men’s track team. Glance told Caribbean TrackLife that “Kirani visited three schools: South Carolina University, Florida State University and the University of Alabama. Our coaching staff met with Kirani and his family....
27 January 2010	Bermuda's Aaron Evans Inspired By Bolt 5 By Twenty-year-old Aaron Evans has had a very active youth, playing soccer, cricket and basketball. The Devonshire, Bermuda native played basketball at camps run by his father and played on the Bermudian National Under-13 soccer squad that toured Europe, playing in Holland, Germany and Belgium. But one April night at the 2004 CARIFTA Games in his home country, Aaron witnessed a lanky Jamaican youth demolish both the CARIFTA Games and World Junior 200m records with a scintillating 19.93 secs. That lanky record-breaker was a young Usain “Lighting” Bolt. Aaron also witnessed his friend and countryman Taijuan Talbot capture gold in the Under-17 1500m (4:17.15). These two performances inspired Aaron to take up track and field seriously; one year later, in 2005, he was at the CARIFTA Games in Bacolet, Trinidad competing for Bermuda. Family Aaron was born on Jan. 31, 1990 and has one older brother (Ariell). His father, D....
02 April 2010	Grenada’s Rondell Bartholomew Sees Track As The Answer 5 By Grenadian native Rondell Bartholomew went to South Plains College in Texas on a mission. Clocking a personal best 21.09 secs in the 200m and 45.58 secs in the 400m outdoor, the 20-year-old freshman is ready for a rewarding outdoor season. Carifta & High School Bartholomew became the 2008 CARIFTA Games 400m champion, when he ran 46.86 secs to win in the Under 20 category. He was, however, dethroned in 2009 by his countryman Kirani James. Bartholomew finished second in 45.58 secs behind James, who won in 45.24 secs and erased Usain Bolt’s record of 46.35 secs. Bartholomew is a talented and versatile competitor. As a senior he led his high school (McDonald College) to the 2009 Grenadian Inter-Secondary Schools Athletics Championships. He won the 100m (10.50), was 2nd in the 200m (21.50) and 400m (46.00) and ran a leg on his team’s winning 4x1 and 4x4 relays. At the 2009 PanAm Junior Games in Port of Spain Trinidad, Bartholomew took 3rd place in the 400m i....
14 May 2010	Texas A&M’s Tabarie Henry Ready For His Call to Duty 5 By “I like the hard work, I like the pain, and I like to go fast,” says Tabarie Henry, the US Virgin Islands-born Texas A&M University junior, in describing his love for running track. With a personal best of 44.77 secs in the 400m and 20.71 in the 200m, Henry has proven over the last two years that his name should be mentioned as one of the world best quarter-milers. With much support from his country, Henry competed for his island nation at the 2008 Beijing Olympics where he made it through to the semi-finals in the 400 (45.19). The 22-year-old Capricorn then followed up that run with a 45.42-secs performance for 4th place at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin. Having run a 2010 season best just over two weeks ago, the former Barton Community College star has his mind on the Big 12 Conference and the NCAAs. Hot off the trac....