With much anticipation and high spirits, a team of eight elite athletes from the Bahamas traveled to Trujillo, Peru for the PanAmerican U20 Athletics Championships. The event takes place July 21

through July 23.

Normally the Bahamas sends a team that is heavy on sprints but struggles in field events, but this year it appears opposite is the case. Manager Laura Pratt-Charlton discusses the team saying the coached have put in extra time, having meets on off weeks. This has paid off for the throwers, high jumpers, long jumpers, as well as the sprinters. 

As for the preparation required to travel to Peru compared to other countries in the past, Charlton says the most important is finding the best route to get there in order to limit the number of connections. Ideally, the team wants a direct flight to get them to the village quicker and give the athletes maximum time to adjust.

The team is small, yet powerful. It's made up for four girls and four boys. Brianne Bethel runs the 100m and 200m. Laquell Harris and Serena Brown, who competed last year, will throw the discuss, while Daejha Mass will compete in the long jump.

The boys are loaded with jumpers, with Kyle Alcine and Jyles Etienne on the high jump, with Holland Martin on the long jump. Recently added Tamar Greene will compete in the triple jump.

According to Charlton, the team is composed of a very mature group of athletes. Most are going to college or have been in college and have been on at least one or two teams together in the past. Despite having had just one meeting, they jelled quickly as if together all season. Small team but powerful and she is expecting the team to bring back a lot of medals, knows they will perform well. Because of the closeness of the team, if one performs well, she feels the others will feed off of that.

The core message she leaves for the team is "give us your best".  Should they do that and feed off each other's energy and performance, Charlton and head coach Patrick Adderley will likely return to the Bahamas with several award winning athletes.