On Saturday, October 5th, four students from the island embarked on a journey to El Salvador to represent the island at the 21st Council for Sports and Recreation of Central America (CODICADER) Games. The participating athletes included Brandon Quijano and Izabel Usher, who represented San Pedro High School in track and field events. Aysha Acosta and Tamilli McCauley also joined the King’s College Basketball team in this year’s CODICADER competition.
The Belize delegation also included the National Secondary Schools Sports Association (NSSSA) volleyball, basketball, and softball school champion teams and the individual NSSSA champions in track and field, chess, and karate. All the participants had to be 17 or younger to participate in the competition. Over 1,500 student-athletes from Panama, Honduras, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and El Salvador participated in the competition.
The young Belizean athletes captured nine medals at this year’s CODICADER, with four coming from team sports and four from individual wins. On Wednesday, Belmopan Comprehensive School earned the bronze medal in girls’ football. Before that, on Monday, St John’s College captured bronze in boys’ volleyball, and St Catherine Academy also got bronze in girls’ volleyball. On Thursday, October 10th, Gwen Lizarraga High School boys played in the basketball final and captured a silver medal.
Three were captured in the first two days by Nyasha Harris – gold in the 100m, silver in the 200m, and a shared bronze with Emani Sandoval, Odierré Bautista, and Isis Casimiro in the 4x100m – and two other bronze medals through the efforts of Tamia Bennett in the girls’ high jump and Austin Lennan in the boys’ high jump.
SPHS sports coordinator and coach Erick Santizo expressed confidence in his athletes’ capabilities. The San Pedro Sun congratulates all Belizean 2024 CODICADER Game medalists on their stellar performances and hard work.