Aiko Jones in action for Jamaica in the Girls’ Under-18 discus at the Carifta Games at the Grenada National Stadium yesterday. Jones threw a personal best 46.49 metres to win gold.
Defending champions Jamaica were well on their way to retaining their hold on the Carifta Games title for a 32nd straight year as they continued to pile up medals on yesterday’s second day of the 45th staging at the National Stadium in St George’s, Grenada.
Among the many winners yesterday were three record-breakers in the individual events with Zico Campbell in the Under-18 Boys’ shot put and intermediate hurdlers Shiann Salmon and Shannon Kalawan.
The Under-18 Boys’ 4x100m team also set a new record 40.40 seconds as they swept all four sprint relays.
At the end of the day, Jamaica was well set on a preliminary count of 55 medals — 26 gold, 18 silver and 11 bronze — well ahead of Barbados with three gold, five silver and five bronze and Guadeloupe with three gold and a bronze.
Bahamas, with two gold in their 18 medals and Trinidad and Tobago also with two gold in their 10 medals, were fourth and fifth, respectively.The championships end today with two more sessions covering 25 more finals. To be contested in the morning are the Girls’ Under-18 javelin, Girls’ Under-20 high jump, and Boys’ Under-18 long jump.
In the afternoon session will be the Girls’ Under-20 javelin, Girls’ Under-18 triple jump, Boys’ Under-20 shot put, all four sprint hurdles finals, Boys’ Under-20 triple jump, Boys’ Under-18 discus throw, the finals in the four 800m events, finals in the four 200m events, Boys’ Under-20 5,000m and the four-mile relays.
All three medallists in the Boys’ Under-18 shot put were over the old mark of 17.56m, set last year by Trinidad’s Isaiah Taylor, with Jamaica’s Campbell winning with 17.75m on his first attempt.
His teammate Rasheeda Downer took silver at 17.57m with Barbados’s Triston Gibbons taking bronze with 16.64m.
Salmon and Kalawan also went under the old marks in the Girls’ Under-18 and Under-20 400m hurdles, respectively, as Jamaica won three of the four gold medals on offer.
Salmon, who was winning her second gold medal after she won the high jump on Saturday, clocked 59.50 seconds to win the event ahead of teammate Sanique Walker and Gabriel Gibson of The Bahamas.
Kalawan dominated the field with an impressive 56.29 seconds to beat The Bahamas’ Lakeisha Warner (58.14 seconds), with Jamaica’s Nicolee Foster in third place in 58.34 seconds.
Timor Barrett won the Under-20 Boys’ 400m hurdles in 51.39 seconds, holding off Barbados’s Rivaldo Leacock (52.07 seconds) in the home stretch, while Jauavney James faded down the stretch and finished third in 53.56 seconds.
Barbados won the gold and silver in the Boys’ Under-18 final as Jamaica’s Dashinelle Dyer took the bronze with 54.5 seconds.
Rasheeme Griffith won with 52.22 seconds, ahead of his compatriot Nathan Ferguson, who clocked 53.56 seconds.
Jamaica will have only five representatives in the four 200m finals today after false starts in yesterday’s preliminaries by Under-20 100m champion, Nigel Ellis and Shanice Reid in the Under-20 Girls, while just one entrant lined up in the Under-20 Boys’ half-lap event.
Also, Trinidad’s Girls’ Under-20 100m champion Khalifa St Forte, withdrew from the remainder of the championships for reasons unknown, it was announced yesterday.
Michael Stephens will fly the Jamaican flag in the Under-18 Boys’ 200m final after placing second in his semi-final heat yesterday in 21.53 seconds.
Shaniel English and Britany Anderson are in the Under-18 Girls’ 200m final; Kimone Hines will be the lone Jamaican in the Under-20 Girls’, while Andel Miller will contest the Boys’ Under-20 final.
Cemore Donald, the 1500m gold medallist from Saturday, will go after her second gold medal after leading the qualifiers in the Under-18 Girls’ 800m running 2:16.76 minutes, while her teammate Chrissanni May also won her semi-final heat in 2:17.03.
Anthony Cox is the only Jamaican in the Under-18 Boys’ 800m final, after winning his semi-final heat in 1:56.59 minutes, while Javantaye Williams had the ninth-fastest time of 1:58.01 seconds and failed to advance.
Shevon Parkes will seek to defend his Under-20 Boys’ 800m and add gold to the one he won in the 1500m, after running 1:54.81 minutes in Sunday’s preliminaries, while Nathan Brown also won his heat in 1:55.71 and advanced to the medal round.
Also yesterday, Aiko Jones won a gold medal in the Under 18 Girls’ discus throw on Sunday morning’s third session, the only final of the session.
Jones, who had taken the bronze in the shot put on Saturday’s opening day, threw a big personal best 46.49m to beat the Cayman Island’s shot put champion Lacee Barnes (43/67m) and The Bahamas’ Tiffany Hanna (39.80m).
First-timer Kobe-Jordan Rhooms got the silver medal in the Under-18 Boys’ high jump beaten by The Bahamas’s Jyles Etienne in a jump-off.
Jamaicans won both 3,000m races — the Boys’ Under-18 and the Girls’ Open; Keenan Lawrence won the boys event in 9:05.71 minutes, easing away from the Cayman Islands’ Dominic Dyer on the final lap as he took the silver in 9:06.33 seconds, and Antigua and Barbuda’s Kallique St Jean (9:11.49).
