Jamaican native Shaun Dietz will be spearheading Guyana’s overseas contingent of athletes who will be competing at the XLII CARIFTA Games which will be held at the Thomas Robinson Stadium in Nassau, Bahamas March 28- April 1.
Guyana’s three overseas athletes are world junior 400m silver medallist Kadecia Baird, former GTU Schools National U14 record holder Ashley Tasher, who recently became a long jumper, and 400m hurdler Syron McKenzie. Of the three, Baird and Tasher are both students at the Edgar Evers College Preparatory High School in New York and they both are coached by Dietz.
“It is a great honour to have two athletes from the same school representing their country! It is very good for their development which will aid future performances,” Dietz said.
Dietz has been coaching Baird for more than three years, helping her to the world junior silver medal in Barcelona last year where she clocked an astounding personal best 51.04 seconds. That performance was even faster than the stipulated Olympic ‘A’ qualifying standard and faster than the CARIFTA under 20 girls 400m record (51.30) set by Jamaican Sonita Sutherland in 2006.
Stabroek Sport interviewed Dietz earlier this week and he stated that Baird had been having a good season this year and he expects her to perform well at CARIFTA. Dietz said that although she had been under the weather a few times, which hindered her season, she was still able to demonstrate prime form in a few events.
”Kadecia had a decent season; she ran (a) personal records over 300m, 37.54. She had a series of colds that had setback her training but I am still expecting her to be competitive in all sprints entered; 200m/400m,” Dietz said.
Dietz’s other athlete Tasher has also been showing improvements in the long jump pit over the past year. Tasher, who is also coached by US-based Guyanese 1996 Olympian and national triple jump record holder Nicola Martial, will be competing in the girls under 17 category. Dietz mentioned that Tasher has performed well in the long jump earlier this season and he expects her to give a solid account for herself at CARIFTA.
”As for this season, Ashley had some decent jumps, she should be very competitive in the Long Jump under 17, category,” Dietz said.
McKenzie’s inclusion adds some variety to the Guyana CARIFTA, since he will be competing in the 400m hurdles in the under 20 category. Mckenzie’s personal record in the hurdles according to http://ny.milesplit.com is 57.36s. The boys under 20 400m hurdles at CARIFTA last year was won by Omar McLeod of Jamaica in 52.35s while his compatriot Shavon Barnes (52.75) placed second and Bajon Tramaine Maloney (53.83s) placed third.
