Pan Am Under-20 team named

America-based sprinter Khristel Martindale is the lone female named in the four-member junior Barbados squad for the Pan American Under-20 Championship this Friday to Sunday, in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico.

Martindale, 19, is joined by fellow sprinters Amari Knight, Aragorn Straker and hurdler Nikkolia Kennedy, who will be accompanied by head coach Bryan Holder.

After a below-par showing of 12.03 seconds in the women’s 100 metres at last month’s Barbados National Championships, Martindale, who trains with Talons Barbados, will be eager to regain her personal best form of 11.61 seconds, achieved three months ago in May in Joliet, Illinois.

Knight bagged the gold medal in the Under-20 boys’ 100 metres at the National Championships, clocking a wind-aided 10.47 seconds, slightly faster than his legitimate personal record of 10.54 seconds.

The 19-year-old who attended the St. Leonard’s Boys School is ready to lay it on all on the track for Barbados in the 100 metres.

Both Knight and Straker represented the country in the 4 x 100 metres relay at the CARIFTA Games.

Straker, 18, who has a life-time best of 10.51 seconds, is also slated to compete in the 100 metres only.

Kennedy, 19, will contest the 110 metres hurdles. Earlier this year, he won a bronze at CARIFTA in 14.02 seconds. However his individual best stands at 13.87 seconds when he achieved a goal of dipping under the 14.00 seconds barrier to win the junior title at the National Championships. (RW)