[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he third edition of the North American, Central American and Caribbean (NACAC) Championships will be held from August 10-12 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, at Varsity Stadium.
Track & Field events will include defending women’s high jump champion, Levern Spencer of Saint Lucia, but only after high-level intervention.
Spencer bows into action on the opening night of the competition, coming in as the event favorite. She will have to hold off the likes of Inika McPherson of the USA, Ximena Esquivel Guzman of Mexico, Elizabeth Patterson of the USA, hometown girl Alyxandria Treasure and Caribbean jumpers led by Antigua and Barbuda’s Priscilla Fredericks.
This will be Spencer’s last chance to represent Saint Lucia in international competition for the year. She is hoping to complete a golden trifecta, having succeeded at the Commonwealth Games in Australia and last week’s Central American and Caribbean Games. She also won the Pan Am Games title in Toronto in 2015.
The Saint Lucian and Caribbean queen of high jump was not originally entered for this meet by the local federation, for reasons that remain unclear. But NACAC president Victor Lopez, personally intervened to ensure that she could defend the title she won in Costa Rica and perhaps extend her meet record height of 1.91m.
At the time, Saint Lucia was one of just three territories from the region not represented in the start list for Toronto. Out of 19 women’s events, only two were not won by Americans in 2015. Spencer may have to be at her best to hold off McPherson, Patterson and Treasure to claim her third international gold medal of 2018.
The three-day NACAC Championships, featuring athletes from 29 of the 31 countries in North America, Central America and the Caribbean, will be lived streamed on CBCSports.ca, as of Friday at 10:05 am ET. CBC-TV will also provide coverage on Saturday (4:00 pm) and Sunday (2:00 pm).
