Less than a week after throwing a personal best at the Cayman Islands Carifta Games 2019 of 71.45m, The University of Mississippi freshman Tyriq Horsford increased that mark to 72.31m at the National Relays in Arkansas, USA considered a warm-up meet to the NCAA Championships which takes place from June 5-8.
Hailing from Tobago, Horsford is a very focused, articulate and personable young man. He recalls being one of the youngest around the track and having the ability to throw a windball from one side of the track to the other but when he asked to throw a javelin he was denied “because he was too small.” So he waiting until the coaches were preoccupied, grabbed a javelin and threw it. The rest is history.
Horsford, 19, now has a historic five Carifta gold medals and on this his last games he spoke with pride about being able to share the experience with family and friends. His cousin Kelsey Daniel earned silver in the men’s Unde-20 triple jump and bronze in the men’s Under-20 long jump. He explained the long jump event was the night before his own javelin competition the next morning so he wasn’t able to be at the stadium. He watched online from his hotel room and was ecstatic that Daniel had won a medal. And was even more so the next day when he won silver.
Horsford, a former student of Signal Hill Secondary School, attributes his success thus far in large part to the trust he has in coaches, especially Tobagonian Wade Franklin, who coached him before going to college and to whom he still turns too for advice and to his confidence in himself. Horsford said it wasn’t always like this but over the years coach Franklin, through encouragement and planning, has been able to reveal to him the power of positive thinking, goal setting and going out there and achieving. Horsford admits he has much better management of his nerves now, but like all great athletes still, get a few butterflies before a meet.
At Mississipi, the Grenadian Anderson Peters is one of his teammates and he said that he is not only inspired by him but also grateful for the tips and advice that he gets from Peters. Closer to home, he also shared that he is in touch with Keshawn Walcott as well from time to time.
Horsford admires the breadth of knowledge that Walcott has about his sport and it was quite obvious to me that Horsford is truly into learning more about mastering his craft and living up to his fullest potential as well. He’s certainly on the right track with two personal record-breaking weekends in a row!
