They traveled 12 hours by road and air to get there and arrived when the competition had already started, but Belize's Track and Field team still brought home gold medals from the Central American Championships, and set new records while they were at it. The games were held in Costa Rica from June 8th to the 10th. Eight athletes went and they brought home 7 medals. At the top of the list is 27-year-old Tricia Flores who arrived in Costa Rica when the long jump was already in progress. She did her first jump 30 minutes into the event and amazingly still placed first and set a new record. She today told us what the win means to her.
Tricia Flores, 1 Gold & 1 Bronze Medal
"In the long jump I broke the record. In 2004 I had it, I broke it, and in 2005 it was taken away from me by this girl Sabrina, a student from Guatemala. This year I went there prepared for her. I really wanted back my record. So I went prepared to get it and I got it. I also have the 100 meter record. I was hoping that no one broke it this year and it wasn't broken. It was set in 2005 also."
Kay-De Vaughn, 1 Bronze Medal
"I got a bronze in the high jump. I've been to Costa Rica for several years now. The competition was very stiff in the triple jump I should say but in the high jump it was alright."
In addition to Flores' gold in the long jump, Jonathan Williams won gold in the four hundred meter hurdles. Williams and Flores broke the records in both. Williams also brought home a bronze medal in the male 100 meter. The other team members are: Emeri Palacio who placed 7th in the male 100 meter, Kaina Martinez who won a bronze medal in the female 100 meter, Joel Wade who placed 8th in the male long jump, and Tamara Nunez who placed 6th in the shot put female.
And while the team has 7 reasons to celebrate, team members say they could have done better if they had gotten financial support. Tricia Flores, Kandice Vaughn, and Joel Wade told us that the long bus ride and lack of finance crippled their team.
Tricia Flores,
"I didn't get to run my one hundred meters race to defend my record
this year because I got injured while doing the triple jump and I think that injury was because going straight into the long jump because we went there on bus and also we reached there late and so I only got to do three jumps and I wasn't able to stretch or warm up before I did my jump. I had to go straight into it and because of that I got injured while doing the triple jump. But hopefully next year I could be able to enter into the one hundred meter and set a new record for Belize."
Kandice Vaughn, Bronze in Shot Put
"We had a lot of difficulties as a team because we drove to Guatemala and we flew from Guatemala to Costa Rica and the traveling distance or the amount of hours, about 12 hours, and so it was really frustrating for our legs and when we reached there, Tricia and Kaina's event had already begun so they had to change behind the field and hurry."
Joel Wade, 8th in Long Jump
"We could have performed or done much better had we taken the full team. At the last minute we had to cut a few members off the team because of financial problems. If we had had our full team, we could have had at least five more medals."
The team was assisted by Atlantic Bank and Pat Andrews. They received no assistance from the National Sports Council. They also say they didn't ask the Sports Council for help because they've never gotten it in the past. Tricia Flores and Jonathon Williams have qualified to represent Belize in the NACA games in July. To that end, the team is appealing for financial assistance.
