JAMAICA swept all four 100m gold medals on offer yesterday as the 18th Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Jr Track and Field Championships got underway at the Felix Sanchez Olympic Stadium, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Despite arriving less than 18 hours before the start of the meet due to several delays, the Jamaicans got off to a brilliant start as they garnered 19 medals — eight gold, five silver and six bronze to lead the tables after the first day of the three-day meet.

A record 586 athletes from 27 different countries are taking part in the meet that will give the youngsters their final preparation for the 13th IAAF World Junior Championship that gets underway in just over two weeks in Canada.

The meet continues today with two sessions and will see competition in a number of events, including the preliminaries and finals of both girls’ 100m hurdles, the Under-20 shot put, the girls’ Under-17 long jump and the preliminaries of both girls’ and boys’ 800m races.

There will also be the boys’ Under-17 high jump, boys’ Under-20 triple jump, girls’ and boys’ 400m finals; boys’ Under-20 shot put, boys’ Under-17 discus, boys’ Under-17 long jump, girls’ Under-20 5,000m as well as the 4x100m finals.

Yesterday, Bernardo Brady in the boys’ Under-20, Odean Skeen in the boys’ Under-17, Saquina Cameron in the girls’ Under-17 and Seidatha Palmer in the girls’ Under-20 all delivered the goods in the short sprints.

The Jamaicans landed two one-two finishes as Skeen and Odail Todd took gold and silver in the boys’ Under-15 race in 10.84 seconds and 10.97 seconds, respectively, running into a 2.3 m/s head wind.

The Under-17 girls also obliged with a quinella as Saquina Cameron won in 12.11 seconds (-1.2 m/s) and Kedisha Dallas was second in 12.23 seconds.

Seidatha Palmer won her first individual gold outside the island when she took the girls’ Under-20 race in 11.88 seconds (-1.8 m/s) after running a personal best 11.64 seconds in the morning’s preliminaries. Deandra Gilbert was third in 12.01 seconds.

Bernardo Brady, who was third in the final at Junior Trials almost a month ago, completed the clean sweep for the Jamaicans when he ran 10.64 seconds into a 1.4 m/s wind to land the gold, as Kemar Bailey-Cole was seventh in 10.79 seconds.

Ristananna Tracey and Danielle Dowie were also first and second in the Under-20 girls’ 400m hurdles. The Edwin Allen runner clocked 58.59 seconds for the gold while Dowie ran a season best 58.94 seconds for the silver.

Claudette Allen was third in the Under-17 girls’ 300m hurdles in 43.78 seconds, beating CARIFTA Games Under-17 bronze medallist Kimone Green into fourth place in 44.17 seconds.

Wolmer’s Boys’ Kamal Fuller just missed his personal best in the boys’ Under-17 long jump when he had a best mark of 7.56m to win Jamaica’s first gold of the meet, while Ramone Bailey was fourth in 7.22m.

Damar Robinson won the bronze in the Under-17 boys’ triple jump with a best mark of 14.89m in a very close competition, beaten by two Bahamians who had three marks over 15m between them.

Peta-Gay Reid also took third in the Under-20 girls’ high jump with 1.73m same as the silver medal-winner, while the gold medallists won with 1.79m.

Kemoy Campbell continued his build up to the World Junior Championships as he cruised to an easy win in the Under-20 1,500m in 3:52.13 as teammate Andre Mosely was seventh, the same position Oshane Turner took in the Under-17 race.