David Walters was the top male Virgin Islands high school sprinter his senior year at Charlotte Amalie High School on St. Thomas. He was coached by Dale Joseph, a V.I. National Track and Field coach.
This weekend, Walters won the NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) National Championship 60 meters on Saturday at the Spire Indoor Track and Field Facility in Geneva, Ohio. His time was 6.69. The performance places high among all-time Virgin Islands athletes, according to a press release from the Virgin Islands Track and Field Federation (VITFF).
Like a number of track and field athletes, he ended up taking the junior college route to develop his performance level. His first stop was Wallace Community College in Alabam. He transferred to Hinds Community College in Raymond, Mississippi, where he was a star, earning All-America Honors. An accumulation of minor injuries, financial woes and other challenges hasn’t stopped him. In addition to competing for his college, he represented the V,I. at CARIFTA Junior Championships, CAC Championships, the IAAF World Junior Championships and NACAC Championships.
He continues to have remarkable success in indoor competition in spite of not having run indoors until college (there is no indoor competition in the Virgin Islands). He has progressed from a 6.98 60m V.I. national junior record in 2008 in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, to a 6.66 national record and a remarkable sixth place listing on the IAAF World List. He ran that time for first place at the New Mexico Collegiate Classic in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Feb. 2.
Now a senior at Langston University in Oklahoma, Walters had a breakthrough season in 2012 when he ran a wind-aided 10.28 in Nassau, Bahamas, just short of making the qualification standard for the London Olympic Games. He was a member of the V.I. national record 4 x 100m relay team in Havana, Cuba, in 2009. During the current indoor season, he has dominated in the 60m by finishing first in six indoor races. He has also run well in the 200m and on his school 4 x 400m relay team.
“He came out of soccer where he had excellent talent, to track and field where his main challenge was to remain injury-free. I feel real happy to see him have the breakout year that he has been longing for in spite of adversity…he always had the talent, now he showing the consistency required for world class sprinting” says Coach Joseph,
Notes:
1] Walters 6.66 60m meter time will likely qualify him for the 2014 IAAF World Indoor Championships where he will compete for the first time. He will join Tabarie Henry 46.34 400m, Laverne Jones-Ferrette 7.13 60m and Eddie Lovette 7.16 60m hurdles, who have also met pending qualifying standards.
2] Walters 6th, Henry 3rd, Jones-Ferrette 2nd and Lovette 3rd reached these positions on the IAAF World Ranking early in the 2013 indoor season. This is an unprecedented achievement in the history of Virgin Islands track and field. The territory has not had four athletes to qualify for the IAAF World Indoor Championships the same year.
3] Walters and the other athletes on the V.I. National Track and Field Team benefit for Virgin Olympic Training Grants; V.I. Government appropriations, and grants from the IAAF/VITFF. His win at the NAIA is the first NAIA 60m Championship for a V.I. National Team Member.