Barbados Shines at Caribbean Junior Cycling Championships in Saint Martin

Arielle Greaves was the best finisher for Barbados at last weekend’s Caribbean Junior Cycling Championships in Saint Martin. A total of 50 riders from 11 territories took part in a time trial and road race over the course of two days.

Team Barbados included Greaves, the only girl, entered in the juvenile (15-16 year old) age group.

A trio of juvenile males comprised Jonah Kelly, Najari Chase, and Matthew Dacosta-Hinds.

And just one athlete was registered for the junior (17-18 year old) boys division, in the person of Daniel Lashley.

The management team included Pedro Lawrence as manager, and Ron Greaves as coach and mechanic.

Dacosta-Hinds was fourth in the juvenile time trial at Sandy Ground, his time 16:8.93, 51 seconds back of the winners, Guadeloupe’s Noe Carerre. Carrere led a Guadeloupe 1-2, as Aleksandre Chomereau was 21 seconds behind, with hometown boy Orlan Gumbs of Saint Martin a further 12 seconds back. The second Barbadian in this category, Jonah Kelly, was eighth in 17:13.95, out of 13 riders.

For the junior boys, Lashley ended in 33:46.05, 10th out of 14. Jahkim Carty of Saint Martin was the winner in 29:16.16.

Among the girls, Greaves was sixth out of six, finishing the one-kilometre course in 19:58.03, two minutes and three seconds behind the winner, Anemone Macabre of Martinique.

In the six-stage 66 km road race, Angel Rodriguez of Puerto Rico emerged as junior boys champion, ending in 2:19:53.789, ahead of Carty and Martinique’s Nehemy Jean-Baptiste. Lashley was 10th, crossing the line at 2:21:24.751.

For the juvenile girls road race, Greaves had the strongest Barbados finish of the weekend. Her opening lap had her down in fifth position, but she pushed up into third on the second lap, then moved to second on the third lap. By the fifth and six laps, she was chasing only the leader, Macabre.

The young Frenchwoman rode at an average speed of 31.84 km/h to stop the clock at 2:04:22.484, whilst the Bajan silver medallist rode 31.74 km/h and ended in 1:04:45,965, just holding off Noemie Milel of Guadeloupe and Mili Hulus of MArtinique by three seconds.

Chase finished up strong in the juvenile boys, coming in a commendable fifth, his time of 1:44:42.052 less than two minutes out of medal contention. Kelly was 13th, and Dacosta-Hinds 19th.

(TF)