Shaffiqua Maloney off to US college on Track and Field scholarship

Shaffiqua Maloney, one of St Vincent and the Grenadines’ top junior female athletes, has left the state to take up a Track and Field scholarship in the United States at Southern Illinois University.

A member of the IT-DAT Academy, Maloney will pursue a four-year bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies and Geography.

Head of the IT-DAT Academy Michael Ollivierre expressed thanks to the National Lotteries Authority and others for assisting with Maloney’s airfare to the USA.

Ollivierre was also grateful to Jenice Daley, who he said played her part in parenting and coaching Maloney over the last three years, while she was living in St Kitts.

A recent graduate of the Verchilds Secondary School in St Kitts, Maloney had a stellar send-off from that institution.

Maloney was Victrix Ludorum and class two champ, winning from the 100m to the 800m, the long jump, triple jump and discus, came third in the javelin and second in the shot putt, at her school’s inter-house meet.

At the Inter-schools’ Championships, she was also the Victrix Ludorum and Class Two Champ, winning the 400m, the 800m, long jump and javelin and establishing two records.

Maloney is the 2013 Central American and Caribbean Age-Group Champion and is a former student of the Thomas Saunders Secondary School.

She has represented St Vincent and the Grenadines at the Junior Carifta Games on two occasions and is hoping to do so again this year.

Maloney missed participating at the 2016 World Junior Championships in Poland because of flight delays and cancellations.(RT)