The en­er­gy in the sta­di­um was elec­tric as the 2025 CARIF­TA Games of­fi­cial­ly got un­der­way in Trinidad and To­ba­go at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um in Mu­cu­rapo. Team Trinidad and To­ba­go wast­ed no time mak­ing their pres­ence felt. Sat­ur­day's Day 1 saw a mix of grit, heart­break, and glo­ry, capped off by five hard-earned medals – three gold, one sil­ver, and one bronze – point­ing to a bright fu­ture for the red, white, and black.

At the start of it all was Da Shaun Leza­ma, who de­liv­ered a clutch per­for­mance in the un­der-20 boys’ 400m fi­nal, claim­ing bronze in a time of 47.43 sec­onds. It was more than just a medal; it was re­demp­tion. Leza­ma rep­re­sent­ed T&T in the 2024 Carif­ta but fell short in the semi­fi­nals. Fast for­ward to this year, and the young sprint­er re­turned with fire, con­fi­dence, and clear in­tent.

“It was to come out and do bet­ter than last year; last year was my first-time rook­ie mis­take. This year, I told my­self not to do that again and to do my best, and you can see it, that I re­deemed my­self,” Leza­ma said.

Leza­ma held his com­po­sure in lane two on Sat­ur­day’s af­ter­noon ses­sion showed just how far he’s come. Over the first 300 me­tres he made up the stag­ger so that com­ing out of the fi­nal bend he was with­in strik­ing dis­tance of a medal. Ba­hami­an Zion Miller won in 46.51 sec­onds, and Guyana’s Malachi Austin clocked 46.54 sec­onds in third.

That was the medal break­through Team TTO need­ed.

In the very next race on the track, O’Shea Cum­mings lit up the sta­di­um with a con­fi­dent run in the un­der-17 girls 1500m, claim­ing the first gold for T&T in a time of four min­utes, 44.61 sec­onds. For most of the race, she stalked Hait­ian ri­val and race leader Aisha Wa­jid, mov­ing along­side and then ahead of Wa­jid with about 40 me­tres left, and there was no stop­ping her then.

“I am very proud of my­self; I think I ex­e­cut­ed very, very well. I on­ly had one thought (be­fore the race): just stick with the per­son in front of me if there is any, and I know I can ex­e­cute com­ing down on the last hun­dred-me­tre stretch,” said Cum­mings af­ter the race.

Wa­jid placed sec­ond in four min­utes, 45.20 sec­onds; Ja­maica’s Denique Palmer placed third in four min­utes, 47.50 sec­onds; and an­oth­er T&T ath­lete, Shi­an Lewis, was fourth in four min­utes, 53.00.

Min­utes lat­er, Christo­pher Sam­my brought home the sec­ond gold and third medal in con­sec­u­tive races for T&T by win­ning the un­der-17 boys’ 1500m in even more con­vinc­ing fash­ion. Sam­my clocked four min­utes, 09.65 in a well-ex­e­cut­ed run that saw him all alone and ahead of the chas­ing pack for well over 300 me­tres.

By the time he round­ed the fi­nal bend for home, Sam­my was al­ready cel­e­brat­ing, as his near­est ri­val was more than 20 me­tres be­hind.

“It is a won­der­ful feel­ing to be at the top of the Caribbean; it is like a dream come true, and hope­ful­ly I can move on to do bet­ter, but this is more than enough for the while,” Sam­my said.

Bermu­da’s Cameron Ad­kins had to set­tle for sil­ver in four min­utes, 12.86 sec­onds, while Luke Plum­mer of Ja­maica was third in four min­utes, 13.54 sec­onds.

Keneisha Shell­bourne added T&T’s gold medal count on day one with a strong show­ing in the un­der-20 girls’ triple jump, cov­er­ing a dis­tance of 12.98m to seal the win. She beat Sab­ri­na Atkin­son’s 12.83, with the Ja­maican edg­ing out French Guiana’s Leane Al­fred, who took the bronze with a best leap of 12.83 me­tres.

T&T al­so claimed a medal in the 100m sprints, with last year’s boys un­der-20 4x100m re­lay an­chor­man Dy­lan Woodruffe plac­ing sec­ond in the boys un­der-20 fi­nal.

Ex­plain­ing lat­er that he did not hear the starter’s pis­tol, Woodruffe over­came a slow start which had him in sev­enth po­si­tion with 30 me­tres gone and made up sig­nif­i­cant ground to snatch a medal. Mak­ing the run more spe­cial, his time of 10.30 sec­onds eclipsed his pre­vi­ous per­son­al best of 10.40.

“This year was a much bet­ter process than last year be­cause last year I dealt with some in­juries, but this year I have been pret­ty good, so, I mean, be­ing in the home at­mos­phere brings more of a mo­ti­va­tion, more hunger, and that helped a lot on this run,” Woodruffe ex­plained.

The event’s win­ner was Ja­mal Stephen­son of Ja­maica in 10.24 sec­onds, and Ethan Sam of Grena­da placed third in 10.41 sec­onds.

Mean­while, the Fredrick twins, Sole and San­na, fin­ished off the podi­um in the un­der-20 girls 100m fi­nal. Plac­ing fifth and sixth, re­spec­tive­ly.

In the un­der-17 boys 100m fi­nal, Alex Seep­er­sad took fourth with 10.74 sec­onds, and in the girls’ ver­sion of the event, Mikay­la Grander­son placed fifth in 12.22 sec­onds.

In the Un­der-20 girls’ 400m, Kay­la Charles placed sev­enth in 56.23 sec­onds, while Eden Chee-Wah came just shy of a medal in the Un­der-17 girls’ 400m, plac­ing fourth in 56.48 sec­onds.

Brion Scott mir­rored that re­sult in the un­der-17 boys’ 400m, fin­ish­ing fourth in 48.88 sec­onds.

In the Un­der-20 boys’ 1500m, Omare Thomp­son placed fourth in a time of four min­utes, 02.79 sec­onds, while team­mate Dar­ius Hard­ing fin­ished eighth in four min­utes, 13.50 sec­onds. On the girls’ side, Kayleigh Forde gave a sol­id ac­count of her­self, clock­ing four min­utes, 47.79 for fourth in the un­der-20 1500 m fi­nal.

Tyrique Vin­cent is cur­rent­ly the leader in the un­der-20 boys de­cathlon with 3719 points over­all af­ter com­plet­ing five events. Mov­ing in­to Day 2, he re­mains in strong medal con­tention.