Ex-Carifta star Jehue Gordon: Obstacles made me hungry

FORMER Carifta Athletics star Jehue Gordon said during his junior career he faced obstacles and disappointments, but he stayed determined which eventually led to him winning multiple gold medals at the event.

Gordon, now an athletics administrator, was speaking at the launch of the Carifta Games at the VIP Lounge in the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Mucurapo on March 20.

TT will host both the Carifta Athletics Championships and the Carifta Aquatics Championships. The athletics will be held at the Hasely Crawford Stadium from April 19-21 and the swimming from April 19-22 at the National Aquatic Centre in Balmain, Couva. On April 23, the open water swimming will splash off in Chaguaramas.

As an Under-17 athlete, Gordon did not make the Carifta team. He stuck at it as he took bronze at the 2008 Carifta Games in the boys' Under-20 400-metre hurdles event. Many would have been satisfied with that and may have slacked off. Not Gordon, using that third-place finish as fuel to continue training in an effort to earn gold. His attitude paid off as he returned a year later to win gold at the 2009 games.

Gordon was a triple gold medallist at the 2009 edition, as he also claimed the boys' Under-20 110m hurdles and was part of the 4x400m quartet.

At the 2010 games, he broke his own Carifta 400m hurdles record and the 110m hurdles record on his way to two gold medals. That year, he won the Austin Sealy Trophy as the most outstanding athlete.

"Not making it the first time took some character...my second time I made it," Gordon said. "I qualified for the boys' individual 400 metres. Unfortunately, I did not medal and I had a slight tweak in my hamstring at the time. Some of the senior athletes, I would not call names, at the time they laughed, they heckled me for the mere fact that they thought I was lying because I lost. That instilled a fire, a drive and a determination for me to make my mind up and say the next time that I make the national team I had to leave with an individual medal."

When he started to focus more on the 400m hurdles, Gordon took bronze which was followed by gold.

"After taking home that bronze medal, I was like 'Definitely this bronze medal is not good enough.' Mindset changed."

Siblings Zachary and Zahara Anthony, along with Aimee Le Blanc are on the TT swim team. The trio attended the launch. Speaking to the swimmers, Gordon said, "Use this experience as a learning curve for yourself. Whether you win, whether you lose, whether you draw."

The TT swim team has been chosen, but the track and field athletes are putting in the finishing touches on their training ahead of the Carifta trials. On April 4, the field events will be held at the Hasely Crawford Stadium and the track events will take place at the Manny Ramjohn Stadium in Marabella. All trials were scheduled to be held at Hasely Crawford, but the track is being renovated for the Carifta Games.

TT finished third in the medal standings at the 2024 Carifta Athletics Games. TT ended with 27 medals – four gold, 11 silver and 12 bronze. Jamaica ended with 83 medals and the Bahamas earned 36 medals.

The TT swimmers finished second in the medal count and third on points behind the Bahamas and Cayman Islands. The national swimmers copped 56 medals – 24 gold, 15 silver and 17 bronze.