NACAC Open Championships attracting top athletes to the Bahamas this weekend

Imagine they held a major international track and field meet and hardly anyone knew about it? That’s the situation facing the NACAC Open Championships this weekend in the Bahamas.

A lot of people have never heard of NACAC, the North American Central American and Caribbean Athletic Association, much less that its quadrennial meet starts Friday. And the lack of a major broadcast network will make it difficult to watch.

The European Championships are currently taking place with great fanfare in the Olympic Stadium in Munich, Germany. The NACAC Championships are also a continental event featuring more than 400 athletes from about 35 countries, but have not achieved the same level of prominence.

The United States announced an 89-person roster this week that includes six medalists and more than 40 competitors from the recent World Athletics Championships. Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson, who won the gold medal in the 200 and the silver in the 100 at Oregon22, will run the 100 at NACAC while Shaunae Miller-Uibo, the Olympic and World Champ from the Bahamas, is expected to lead the home squad.

Triple jumper Keturah Orji, a two-time Olympian from the U.S. who finished sixth at the World Championships, jumped at the chance to compete at the meet, which will be held at the Grand Bahama Sports Complex in Freeport.

Orji, 26, told Around the Rings she never went to the NACAC senior meet in the past or its U23 or U20 editions because it conflicted with other events or with her goals for that year. “This year it fits really well,” she said. “It’s a good opportunity to compete for Team USA. And it’s in the Bahamas.”

As an added attraction, the athletes’ village is at the Breakers Cay, a beach resort.

World ranking points will be awarded, which will help athletes qualify for top events including the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest. In addition, a NACAC victory will be considered as having met the qualifying standard for Worlds. For countries that do not hold trials, that’s essentially a guaranteed entry.

“It’s really good for world ranking points and it’s always great going into a season with guaranteed marks or guaranteed qualification,” said Orji, the American record holder and six-time national outdoor champion. “It helps countries that may not have a national championships get a standard.

“It’s a very big deal in Central American countries and the Caribbean islands.”

Unfortunately, track fans in the United States who could watch the World Championships on multiple NBC Sports networks and platforms will have to scramble to find an outlet streaming NACAC. It is not part of the U.S. Olympic broadcaster’s track and field offerings.

And NACAC is even hard to find online. It shares an acronym with the National Association for College Admission Counseling, which comes up first in a U.S. Google search, followed by the North American Council on Adoptable Children. The words “athletics” or “track” must be added to find the right organization.

NACAC, which is headquartered in the Bahamas, was the last of the six World Athletics regions to hold a senior athletics competition. The first was held in 2007 in San Salvador, El Salvador, yet another edition was not held until 2015 in San Jose, Costa Rica. Toronto hosted the 2018 championships, which included Olympic champion Hansle Parchment of Jamaica.

The United States has, naturally, been atop the medal table each year, but while the country sent some of its stars to Toronto, the roster was not as deep as it is this year.

World champion hammer thrower Brooke Andersen, javelin silver medalist Kara Winger and hammer bronze medalist Janee Kassanavoid are individual Team USA medalists from Oregon22.

World indoor high jump champion Vashti Cunningham, 2016 Olympic steeplechase silver medalist Evan Jaeger, world indoor 800-meter gold medalist Ajee Wilson and 2016 Olympic 400 hurdles bronze medalist Ashley Spencer also highlight the U.S. team. Two-time world champ Noah Lyles will not be competing, but his brother Josephus will race the 200 as he continues to make his own mark in the sport.

Because the Diamond League took a break to accommodate athletes competing in the European Championships, the NACAC meet fills a gap in the schedule for other athletes looking to stay sharp.

NACAC president Mike Sands of the Bahamas told The Tribune, that he expected “a very competitive event.”

Sands said winners will take home $2,000 with silver medalists earning $1,000 and bronze medalists $500.

After NACAC, the Diamond League will resume with its final events, just as it concluded the 2021 season more than a month after the Olympics. Orji said it is hard to keep the momentum going for such a long campaign and she will end her season after NACAC because of lingering knee pain.

“The buildup all season is Olympics or Worlds; that’s what everyone is working for,” Orji said. “It’s the big show, then there’s almost a decline. You have to pick it back up. It’s hard to grasp and get your body motivated again after you’ve done the big show. A lot of athletes agree with that. You’ve been working towards Worlds and thinking, ‘Did I do everything I wanted to do? Do I still want to do more competitions, or shut it down and enjoy my accomplishments?’”