Commonwealth Youth Games GAPS programme athletes

Tomi Roberts-Jones, Will Bishop and Ashton Fish have been selected for the first ever Commonwealth youth programme in South Africa. The athletes, and their coach Morgan Jones leave for Cape Town today for a week’s long training camp in Stellenbosch.

The programme which leads into the upcoming Trinbago Commonwealth Youth Games this summer, offers athletes from Africa, Asia and Europe a development opportunity in preparation for the Youth Games in Trinidad and Tobago.

The GAPS programme proved to be a success in the preparation of Para-athletes for Birmingham 2022, and the Commonwealth Games Federation hope to replicate the benefits for para sport and identify potential athletes and coaches at the Youth Games in August.

DSW Performance Pathway Senior Officer, Nathan Stephens said ‘’It’s amazing to see Para events being included within the Commonwealth Youth Games for the first time this year and we’re delighted that 3 Welsh Para Athletes and Coach Morgan Jones have been given the opportunity to attend the GAPS programme which will provide them with an incredible competition and development experience. This is a huge opportunity for youth Para sport, to give young developing Athletes to compete on the world stage and help with the transition into senior competitions and future multi-sport games”

Para Athletics is the first ever Para Sport at CYG TRINGBAGO 2023 with the following 3 events for females and males:

  1. Track: 100m T38 (Eligible Sport Classes: T35/36/37/38)
  2. Jumps: Long Jump T38 (Eligible Sport Classes: T35/36/37/38)
  3. Throws: Discus F42-44/F61-64 (Eligible Sport Classes: F42/43/44/F61/62/63/64 (Raza points)

Chris Type, Head of Performance at Welsh Athletics said ‘We are delighted to see 3 Welsh athletes have been selected to participate in the GAPS Africa & Europe Youth Camp. This will provide all three athletes a great opportunity to gain valuable experience within an international training and competition environment at such an early stage in their athletic development.’

The key objectives of the GAPS programme is to provide opportunities for athletes and coaches to further develop and prepare for the Youth Games through an elite environment training camp, competition opportunity at the South Africa National Championships and to support qualification standards and pre-screening opportunity for classification.

Selection for the GAPS programme does not guarantee selection for the Youth Games this summer. Qualification and selection for TRINBAGO 2023 will be announced ahead of the CYG.

Commonwealth Games Wales CEO, Rebecca Edwards-Symmons added ‘This is a great opportunity to further develop para-sport across the Commonwealth, and a key opportunity for para-athletes and coaches here in Wales to gain valuable Games experience in the training camp environment. We wish Tomi, Will and Ashton all the best over in South Africa and I’m sure under Morgan’s coaching they will undoubtedly have a successful camp.

For further information on the TRINBAGO Commonwealth Youth Games click here:

Trinbago 2023 Commonwealth Youth Games (commonwealthsport.com)