Barbados National Championships to Feature Commonwealth Champion Sada Williams as the Main Event

Sada Williams, the gold winner from the Commonwealth Games and two-time bronze medallist from World Championships, leads a stellar field of Barbados’s best athletes who will compete in their National Track and Field Championships from 21–23 June.

Williams, who has already qualified for the Olympic Games in Paris, is her country’s top medal contender. She trains at the MVP Track Club in Jamaica under the guidance of Stephen Francis.

The 26-year-old will compete in the women’s 400-meter race at Bridgetown’s Usain Bolt Sports Complex.

By her high standards, the Bajan national record holder’s 2024 season hasn’t performed well thus far; in her five 400-meter races, she hasn’t finished in under 50 seconds.

Her season-best 50.71 was achieved on May 30 at the Oslo Diamond League.

At the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Oregon, Williams made history by winning bronze in the 400 metres in 49.75 seconds, a national record at the time and a personal best.

Williams won gold at the Commonwealth Games later that year, running 49.90 seconds to become the first female competitor to finish under 50 seconds. She finished in third place at the Diamond League Final in Zurich, Switzerland, in 49.98 to cap off 2022.

She won another bronze medal at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest, capping off an incredible season.

Williams ran a 49.58 personal best and a 49.58 national record in the semifinals, then came back to run a little slower 49.60 in the championship race to win back-to-back bronze medals.

Olympians Mario Burke and Tristan Evelyn, who are anticipated to compete in the men’s and women’s 100-meter events, respectively, have also been confirmed for the Barbados nationals.

Burke, 27, competed in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and has a personal best score of 9.98 from 2019. At the World Junior Championships in Poland in 2016, he won bronze in the 100 metres in a time of 10.26. On June 7 in Sherman Oakes, California, he achieved a season’s best time of 10.22 at the Last Chance Sprint Series.

Notable athletes include quarter-miler Desean Boyce, former CARIFTA sprinters Julian Forde and Kishawna Niles, and hurdlers Tia-Adana Belle and Rasheeme Griffith.

In the heats of the SEC Championships on May 9, Griffith, a senior at the University of Tennessee, set a new national record in the 400-meter hurdles event with a time of 48.79.

Kayla Thorpe, the national javelin record holder, Layla Haynes, Hannah Connell, and gold medalists at the CARIFTA Games are all scheduled to compete.