分类： sports

Fresh off a standout showing at the Junior Pan American Track Cycling Championships in Mexico, 18-year-old Barbadian cyclist Arielle Greaves returned home this week with new personal bests, renewed motivation, and a clear roadmap for her next chapter in elite junior competition.

Greaves landed at Grantley Adams International Airport on Monday to cheers from her elated family, just days after notching two new updates to her own Barbadian national records and securing a fifth-place finish in the event’s hotly contested keirin final. During the early rounds of the continental meet, she shattered her previous benchmarks in both the 1km time trial and the flying 200m sprint, improvements she attributes to small but critical adjustments to her race setup.

In an interview with reporters shortly after clearing arrivals, the rising cycling star framed the Mexico competition as both a familiar and transformative experience. Having competed at the senior Pan American Games last year, Greaves said the junior championship still delivered unexpected lessons about her racing style and equipment. “For my kilo race, I learned that a lighter gear works best for me — that adjustment alone made it possible to beat the record I set last year,” she explained. Between the results and the new insights, both Greaves and her coach Elisha Greene are thrilled with the outcome. “He’s very proud of the progress I’ve made: cutting my flying 200m time from 11.8 to 11.3 seconds is a huge jump, and breaking the kilo record too means a lot,” she said.

Now, the teen rider is already ramping up training for her next slate of international events, with the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games, the UCI Junior Track Cycling World Championships, and a handful of America Cup meets on the horizon. But Greaves’ path to success has not come without hurdles: Barbados currently lacks a dedicated velodrome, forcing her to base her full-time training in Trinidad, hundreds of kilometers from her home support network. “It’s definitely challenging being away from my family and core team, but I know I have to put in the work there to get better,” she said. “It just means I have to dig deeper every day.”

Greaves also added that the dominant performance by Colombian cyclists at the Pan American championship gave her new inspiration to refine her technique. “The Colombian team swept so many events, they’re really the standard I look up to,” she said. “I’ve been studying their racing strategies to see what adjustments I can make to my own style to improve.”

Team manager Deidre Hinkson, who accompanied Greaves on the Mexico trip, shared that the entire program is celebrating the teen’s results while working to shore up long-term support for her career. “Everyone is on such a high after how she performed, but now we need to map out the next steps for her,” Hinkson explained, echoing the challenge of Greaves’ training arrangement in Trinidad. “Our goal is to keep her race-fit and competing at the highest level so she can keep improving on these results.”

Hinkson also revealed that right now, all of Greaves’ overseas training costs are covered out of pocket by her parents. To help the young rider reach her full potential, the team is now launching a search for additional funding sources to ease that financial burden and keep Greaves on track toward her competitive goals.

As the 2024 National Sports Council BICO Primary School Football Competition prepares to kick off across Barbados this Tuesday, defending champions West Terrace Primary are stepping into their title defense campaign with measured confidence, poised to build on last year’s historic victory. The reigning champions will not open their first match until Wednesday, where they will face off against Sharon Primary at the Orange Hill playing field – the same pitch where they secured a narrow 1-0 win over Arthur Smith Primary to claim the championship trophy 12 months prior. This year, West Terrace Primary has been drawn into the competitive Dean Alleyne Zone, where they will go head-to-head with seven other participating schools: St Aban’s Primary, St Stephen’s Primary, St James Primary, St Matthews Primary, Good Shepherd Primary, Welches Primary, and their opening opponent Sharon Primary. In an exclusive interview with local outlet Barbados TODAY, long-serving team coach Roderick Harmon opened up about his squad’s preparations and outlook for the upcoming tournament, emphasizing his stance of cautious optimism for the campaign ahead. Harmon revealed that a core group of key players from last year’s title-winning roster have returned to the team this season, a strength he believes will give West Terrace a critical competitive edge over the other competing squads. “From the pre-tournament launch, it’s clear this is shaping up to be one of the most exciting tournaments we’ve seen in years, with lots of promising young new talent across all participating teams. We’re all ready and raring to get started, and we’re just looking forward to playing good football and enjoying the whole experience,” Harmon shared. “Thankfully, we’ve retained around six or seven players from last year’s championship side. These kids already know what it takes to compete at this level, they’ve stood on that winning stage, and that experience goes a long way. The entire squad is buzzing with excitement – winning a title only fuels that hunger to do it again. The returning boys are eager to get back on the pitch, and our new young recruits have already shown they can hold their own against tough competition.” The veteran coach, who has spent more than 20 years developing youth sports teams across multiple disciplines including athletics and cricket, leading multiple squads to championship titles, added that the team has not been weighed down by the pressure that comes with being defending champions. Instead, the program stays focused on its core long-term goals for player development. “After coaching at this level for more than two decades, I’ve learned to spot what championship-level potential looks like, and our goal every year is to help our players reach that standard,” Harmon explained. “We always make sure the kids understand that success doesn’t just come easily. You have to put in the hard work at every training session, keep a positive attitude, and if you do those things, success will follow with a bit of luck.” One notable rule and venue change for this year’s tournament is that the semifinal and final matches will be hosted at the Barbados Football Association’s state-of-the-art Wildey Technical Centre, a major upgrade from previous editions of the youth competition. This shift has earned widespread praise from coaches including Harmon, who says the new venue offers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the young student-athletes. “I think this is such an important change for these kids. It gives them a chance to experience what it’s like to play at the highest level of the sport, on the best facilities that Barbados has to offer,” he noted. “Exposing young boys and girls who love football to top-tier infrastructure gets more kids excited to get involved in the sport. When they get to play on a pitch like that, it gives them something to work toward and encourages them to put forward their best performance every time they step on the field. It’s a really positive change for the whole competition.” This year’s edition of the tournament has drawn a record-level turnout, with more than 70 primary school teams from across the island registering to compete. 15 opening round matches are scheduled to kick off at venues across Barbados on Tuesday, the first official day of the national competition.

Two of the Barbados Football Association (BFA) Premier League’s top title contenders will have to hold their breath a little longer, as their hotly contested title-race showdown was called off mid-game, with a second match also postponed, all due to hazardous thick smoke from a nearby bush fire.

The disruption hit the BFA Technical Centre playing grounds, where the clash between second-ranked Paradise and third-placed Brittons Hill United was halted at halftime, with the scoreboard still locked at 0-0. Organizers confirmed that this match, paired with the later scheduled fixture between defending champions Weymouth Wales and Kickstart, would be rescheduled at a later date, with no new time confirmed as of yet.

With just three rounds of regular play left in the season, the results of both postponed matches will have massive ripple effects on the final title standings. Current table-toppers Weymouth Wales hold only a narrow one-point lead over second-place Paradise, while Brittons Hill United sit five points further back in third, meaning every point will be critical as the season reaches its climax.

While the title contenders’ match was cut short, one full fixture did get completed on matchday, and it delivered all the drama fans could have hoped for: the UWI Blackbirds pulled off a gritty 2-1 comeback win over Bagatelle, courtesy of a stoppage-time match-winner from substitute Xavier Archer.

UWI Blackbirds drew first blood in the 21st minute, when a left-sided corner from Teon Cadogan sent the penalty area into chaos, and Johan Goddard managed to poke the ball over the goal line to give his side an early lead – a rare advantage for the Blackbirds, who have struggled through a difficult season so far. The lead would not hold long, though; just 10 minutes later, sloppy defending from UWI let Bagatelle’s top scorer Torian Joseph burst through the defensive line, slotting the ball past goalkeeper K’den Hee Chung to level the score.

The score stayed level through halftime, but the game’s tension ramped up in the 57th minute, when UWI captain Tidre Arthur was shown a red card by referee John Griffith for using an elbow in an aerial challenge with Bagatelle’s Tyrese King, leaving the Blackbirds down to 10 men.

As the match ticked into stoppage time, a draw looked like the most likely outcome. But that changed when Rojae Collins delivered a pinpoint cross that found an unmarked Xavier Archer, who headed home the winning goal in the 95th minute to secure all three points for UWI. Minutes later, Bagatelle’s Azure Cumberbatch was also sent off after picking up a second yellow card, leaving both sides down to 10 players by the final whistle.

After the hard-fought victory, Blackbirds player Zion Gollop reflected on his side’s performance, praising the team’s resilience through the match’s toughest moments. “I thought we showed good character to grind out the 2-1 win and we stayed together when the game got quite tough after going down a man in the second half,” Gollop said. “We can take positives from our work rate and resilience and taking the chances when we got them.”

Looking ahead to the remaining matches of the season, Gollop also noted areas where the side can improve. “Probably the game management, keeping concentration for the full 90 minutes and being a bit cleaner in possession at times, but there’s still room to grow and there is definitely something to build on,” he added.