Cayman’s 1st male 100M Carifta Champion

“I am coming here to Bahamas to cause an upset, me and Jaiden Reid, we are out to put Cayman on the map”

These are the words uttered by the newly crowned Carifta UN20 100M champion Davontè Howell after having completed the preliminaries of the 100M at the Thomas Robinson Stadium, defeating the reigning 2022 Carifta UN20 champion De Andre Daley. With a time of 10.68, he had easily qualified for the semifinals to be run later in the day.

The semifinal 2 lineup included four of the top five qualifiers for the semis, and to further add to the star-studded semifinal lineup De Andre Daley was also in the lineup. Before the semifinal could be run off, there was drama and two athletes including Daley were disqualified for false starts. The race was finally set off, and the Bahamian Carlos Brown led most of the race until Howell passed him with about ten meters to go and entered the finals with the fastest seed time of 10.41.

The finals did not disappoint, and there was quality on the track two Bahamians, two Caymanians, one Barbadian, one Antiguan, one Trinidadian and one Nevisian like the semifinals before Brown was fast out of the block but was tracked down by Howell, who started celebrating before crossing the line. The young Caymanian sprinter enjoying his first big win at a major meet. With a time of 10.30, he became the new champion. 

Howell is no stranger to anyone following athletics in the Cayman Islands as he has been running at local track meets from the age of 4 and has been the top athlete at Prospect Primary School and John Gray High School for each year that he attended. Howell also holds the distinction of being the youngest victor ludorum for the Inter-Secondary Scholastic meet.

Howell has been trained and nurtured by Coach Marjorie Scott (Prospect Primary), Coach Tyrone Yen (Mustang Track Club) and the assistant coaches at Mustang Track Club before he left in 2021 to attend the IMG Academy in Bradenton Fl where he is currently being coached by Dwight “Bigga” Thomas a former Olympian with the Jamaica team.

Howell is one of the team captains for IMG and has been exposed to indoor and outdoor events and has all-American honours for indoors in 2022 and 2023 and all-American honours for outdoors in 2022. Howell has a personal best of 10.29 in the 100M, which he ran in the recently concluded Texas relays before flying to Cayman to meet up with his Carifta teammates to leave for the Bahamas.  Howell has also been invited to the prestigious Adidas Atlanta City Games held in Atlanta, Georgia, on May 6, 2023. These invitations are reserved for the top 8 high school athletes, who get to rub shoulders with several pro athletes. Howell has a few more outdoor meets before he closes this season and has already qualified for the New Balance outdoor nationals.

Howell has several offers from top Div 1 colleges and universities and has to finalize his choice. Howell is not just athletically gifted; he also passed 17 subjects by age 15 when he left JGHS and graduated in 2022 with Level 2 high honours.

Howell dreams of one day representing the Cayman Islands at the Olympics and the World Championships and standing on top of the podium listening to the words “Beloved Isles Cayman” playing in the background.