CARIFTA Games - CARIFTA Games Records

CARIFTA Games Records

Jamaica has dominated the medals table at CARIFTA over the years. So too the record books. They hold records in 10 of the 21 Under-20 men's events contested all-time at CARIFTA, and hold or share 11 of the 17 Under-20 women's records. At the junior level, Jamaican boys own nine of the 17 records, whilst their girls possess a remarkable 10 of 16 marks in the Under-17 division. The oldest CARIFTA record in the books, though (at least for events still being contested in the modern Games), belongs to a Bermudan, Sonya Smith, whose Under-20 Javelin Throw performance of 53.98m has been on the books since 1979. The oldest boys' record is 15.03m, the winning distance for Lyndon Sands of the Bahamas in the 1980 Under-17 Triple Jump.

Kareem Streete-Thompson went on to become one of the world's leading horizontal jumpers, but his CARIFTA performances have earned legendary status. In 1989, he set an Under-17 Long Jump record with a leap of 7.83m, and a year later his 7.95m was an Under-20 record, in his first year competing at that level for Cayman Islands. Both marks remain untouched. The women's horizontal jump records are almost as long-lived, Jackie Edwards' 1987 mark of 6.14m was the Under-17 winning distance that year, and Daphne Saunders' leap of 6.93m won her the 1989 title. Both ladies are from the Bahamas.