Aliyah Greaves from Barbados shines at CCAN Games in Mexico

Barbados: Aliyah Greaves returned home on Monday from attending the CCCAN Games in Mexico to the news that she will be attending Queen’s College from the next school term.

The outgoing head girl at Trinity Academy scored 98% in Mathematics and 89% in the English Paper with an A in composition to gain a place at the school where her mum Joyanne Atherley excelled in academics and which was her first choice.

Aliyah is an active and well-rounded student who represented her school in the Mental Math Competition, swimming and track and field and she is a national swimmer who represented Barbados at the Goodwill Games, CARIFTA and CCCAN.

While children her age were preparing for the CEE, Aliyah was hard at training for CARIFTA which was held during the Easter vacation. The Easter vacation is a time when most children doing CEE go to school for lessons and even have extra lessons.

During the time leading up to the CEE, Aliyah never gave up her sports. Instead while children were attending extra lessons and going to school during the Easter vacation, Aliyah was training and was impressive in her performances in NAPSAC, CARIFTA and CCCAN.

Aliyah won the girls’ under-13 Shot Put at the 2024 NAPSAC games and she did while setting a new record of 10.44m, a measurement that overshadowed the boys’ measurement (same division) of 9.87m and was way better than the second place girl who threw 8.40m.

Aliyah was also the youngest member of the 2024 Barbados CARIFTA Swimming Team for the games held in the Bahamas this year and she was the only primary school child on the team.

Determined and talented, Aliyah copped a bronze medal in the girls’ 11-12 age group 50m backstroke with a personal best time and she swam on the relay teams which won a silver medal in the 4x50m freestyle relay, the team that won silver in the 400m IM relay and the team that won a bronze medal in the 4x100m freestyle.

In addition to the above, Aliyah won a silver medal at the CCCAN Games in Mexico last week while setting a new national record in the 11-12 age group.

Aliyah has shown how it should be done. She was attentive in class, always focused and a lot of her development came through sports. Her competitive nature, her time management skills, her work ethics and her ability to analyse situations were all skills nurtured at home and through her athletics and swimming.

The people in her immediate environment, her parents and sibling were also very supportive and are excellent examples of hard work and diligence. Her sister is the top junior female cyclist in Barbados, her dad Ron Greaves still cycles and they provide an environment that is conducive to developing the mind.