FIRING THE GUN: Evans BVI's first female race starter at CARIFTA Championships
Source: The Virgin Islands Daily News
ST. GEORGES, Grenada -- British Virgin Islands native Gemi Evans was part of several milestone events during last weekend's 2024 CARIFTA Track and Field Championships.
First, Evans became the first woman from the territory to be an official race starter for the CARIFTA Championships, and the second person overall from the BVI (the first was the late Patrick Harrigan).
The second was more special to Evans -- serving as the official starter for the under-17 boys 200-meter dash final Monday night, when Tiondre Frett earned a bronze medal in the event, the BVI's lone CARIFTA medal.
"What made that bronze medal better was being able to start that race for him," Evans, who started several races and was also a recall starter at the CARIFTA Championships, told The Daily News. "That was an amazing feeling."
Evans said her journey towards becoming a race official began when coach Ralston "Grandfather" Henry had a vision of her having an opportunity to attend the games and gain valuable experience.
Henry contacted fellow coach Willis "Chucky" Todman -- also the British Virgin Islands Athletics Association's treasurer -- and BVIAA general secretary Stephanie Russ Penn, and "they made it come to fruition," Evans said.
"My interest for starting was sparked some 10 years ago, when I saw Grandfather walking across the track and he was going to meet Mr. Harrigan and I told him that I wanted to be a starter," she added.
"He told me 'come,' but I don't know if he was serious; however, I did join him and Mr. Harrigan. He told Mr. Harrigan that I was interested in being a starter. I got a crash course on the spot and eventually, the gun was placed in my hands."
Evans said it was Harrigan's vision for all the up-and-coming starters to eventually branch out to regional and international meets, and not just be able to start local meets.
She said that there haven't been many starters leaving the BVI since Harrigan, so it came as a surprise as she's one of the most dependable starters for all the BVI Athletics Association and territorial school events.
Evans was also entrusted with the starter's role in Saturday's under-17 and unde-20 men's and women's 400-meter semifinals.
"I had a crash course with Jamaica's international starter Ludlow Watts," Evans said. "He mentored me and we did a couple run throughs and I was able to execute well."
However, Evans said that the standards to be a starter for an event like the CARIFTA Championships are much higher than with territorial events.
"It's different in certain instances," she said. "We don't have microphones on the starting blocks or the electric gun. I didn't have the worries of it jamming like the manual gun at home. The gun itself is lighter, the sound is way different. I noticed that some of the athletes who may have been accustomed to the manual gun, they would be a bit hesitant coming out the blocks because they're expecting a bigger explosion. The sound is a little more subtle than the big explosion and rapid shot you'd hear from the manual gun."
Evans also worked with Grenadian starters, as well as the technical team with officials from Grenada, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago.
At one time, Evans asked athletes if they could hear her at the start of the 400 meters, a necessary question to ensure athletes in lane No. 8 could hear her commands, and when the gun is fired - the signal to come out of the blocks.
One of her assignments as an assistant starter was to raise the cards -- red, green or yellow -- if there was an infringement of the rules.
"With technology, sometime there are glitches, and we might ask athletes to come out of the blocks and stand, which is no fault of their own," Evans said. "You'll have to walk around with a green card to let them know that they are all safe. If I present a yellow card for whatever reason, that would be a warning that you need to check yourself. A red card would mean you have false started or have committed some sort of violation and you'd have to leave the field."
Evans hopes the opportunity will open the door for more BVI officials to assist in different regional competitions.
"I hope one day that we have more local starters in the BVI," she said. "I do look forward to future regional and international competitions, so they could know that we do have those talents nestled right here in the Virgin Islands as well."
