J’can relay teams cop three gold medals at CAC
JAMAICAN sprint relay teams won three of the four gold medals yesterday as the defending champions continued their dominance of the 18th Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Jr track and field championships at the Felix Sanchez Olympic Stadium, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
The Jamaicans won another 18 medals, adding to the 21 they won on Friday’s first day that included a clean sweep of all four 100m gold medals to be on 39 and well on their way to surpassing the 59 medals won at the last staging in Trinidad four years ago.
Two bronze medals came late on Friday as Demar Johnson took third in the Under-17 boys’ triple jump with 14.89m and Peter-gay Reid was third in the Under-20 girls’ high jump with 1.73m, losing the silver on the count back.
Yesterday’s tally included nine gold medals, five silver and four bronze.
The meet ends today and Jamaicans will feature in 25 more finals including the four 200m sprints, the boys’ sprint hurdles, the 800m and the 4x400m relays.
Jamaica ended the meet on a high by winning three of the four sprint relays, both girls in 45.67 seconds and 45.03 seconds respectively; the Under-17 boys in 40.88 seconds, while the Under-20 boys’ team was second in 40.07 seconds behind Trinidad.
Earlier in the day, Jamaicans swept both female sprint hurdle finals, with Megan Simmonds running 14.32 seconds into a negative 3.8 m/s wind and Kimone Green third in 15.06 seconds, while Danielle Williams took the Under-20 section in 14.11 seconds (-3.2 m/s) after Tonique Sobah was disqualified in the morning’s preliminary heats after a false start.
Chanice Porter warmed up for the World Junior Championships by winning the girls’ Under-17 long jump with 5.91m, while Tamara Moncrieffe was third with 5.54m
Chadwick daCosta (51.82m) and Frederick Dacres (47.88) took the gold and silver in the Under-17 discus, while Lennox Williams won Jamaica’s only gold in the 400m in the Under-17 boys, crossing the line in a personal best 47.94 seconds.
Chriss-Ann Gordon and Olivia James were second and third in the Under-17 girls’ final as Jermaine Gayle was fourth in the boys’ Under-20 and Javere Bell sixth.
Javari Fairclough shared the gold medal in the boys’ Under-17 long jump with 7.17m, the same distance as the winner Juan Mosquera of Panama, while Clive Pullen was third with 6.74m.
Candecia Bernard took her second silver in as many days when she finished second in the Under 20 girls shot put in 12.73m while Ashani Wright also took silver in the Under-17 boys’ high jump after clearing 1.90m.
Devon Dobson was third in the Under-20 boys’ pole vault clearing 4.00m.