KINGSTON, Jamaica — Jamaica completed yet another dominance of the CARIFTA Games with another master class on the final day of the 45th staging at the national stadium in St George’s, Grenada, equalling last year’s record haul of 86 medals.

A preliminary count showed Jamaica winning 42 gold medals, 28 silver and 16 bronze, compared to 42 gold, 25 silver and 19 bronze earned last year in St Kitts.

The Bahamas were next with six gold, 15 silver and 13 bronze followed by Barbados — six gold, six silver and eight bronze, Grenada — three gold, four silver and six bronze, Trinidad and Tobago — three gold, two silver and nine bronze and Guadeloupe — three gold, one silver and one bronze.

Among the number of outstanding performances was the record in the under-20 boys’ shot put by Warren Barrett as he smashed the five-year-old mark of 19.47metre set in 2011 in Montego Bay by another Calabar thrower Ashinia Miller.

Barrett, who was upset by his teammate Kyle Mitchell at the ISSA champs last weekend, twice went over the old record, first with a put of 19.83m before setting a new personal best 19.97m.

Sanjae Lawrence made it gold and silver for Jamaica when he took second place with 18.89m, fouling several big throws while Josh Hazzard of Grenada took the bronze with 17.18m.

After three consecutive silver medals, including one in the long jump earlier, Obrien Wasome finally landed gold when he won the triple jump in a personal best 16.09m (-0.9m/s) as defending champion and long jump winner Miguel Van Assen of Suriname failed to make a legal mark.

Wasome had just two legal jumps while passing twice with Jordan Scott taking silver also with a personal best 16.01m (0.2m/s) and Martinique’s Jordan Caraman took third with 15.68m (-0.8m/s).

Jamaicans swept the sprint hurdles gold medals, despite Dejour Russell’s disqualification from the under-18 race after false starting while winds stronger than the allowable 2.0 metres per second denied Rushelle Burton a record on the under-20 girls’.

Burton ran a wind-aided 13.36 seconds to beat Sidney Marshall, 13.73m who just edged Trinidad and Tobago’s Jeminise Parris credited with the same time.

Rohan Cole won the under-20 boys’ gold in 13.71 seconds (0.9m/s) finishing ahead of two runners from the Bahamas as Timor Barrett failed to finish the race.

Tavonte Mott took the silver in 13.81 seconds and Shakeem Smith third in 14.12 seconds.

Dasazay Freeman won the Under-18 girls’ gold in a wind-aided 13.44 seconds (3.9m/s), Sasha Wells of the Bahamas took the silver with 13.48m and Jamaica’s Joda Campbell of Jamaica was third with 13.78 seconds.

Florida-based Damion Thomas made up for the loss of Russell in the boys’ under-18 final as he won the gold in a personal best 13.32 seconds.

Branson Rolle of the Bahamas was second in 13.80 seconds and Rasheem Brown of Cayman third in 14.05 seconds.

Jamaica failed to medal in the under-20 boys’ 200m that was won by Trinidad’s Akanni Hislop in a wind-aided 20.89 seconds (4.5m/s), but Jamaican won two of the other three gold medals including the gold and silver in the under-18 girls’.

Shaniel English retained the under-18 girls’ title running 23.65 seconds holding off teammate Britany Anderson, 23.74 seconds with Devine Parker of the Bahamas taking the bronze in 23.86 seconds.

Michael Stephens won the under-18 boys’ gold, running out of lane eight, in 21.43 seconds into a head wind of -1.9m/s, beating Trinidad’s Tyrell Edwards, 21.56 seconds and Barbados’ Mathew Clarke, 21.75 seconds.

Kimone Hines was third in the under-20 girls’ final in a wind aided 23.85 seconds (2.4m/s) behind Barbados’ Sada Williams who took the double, winning in 22.72 seconds and Jenae Ambrose of the Bahamas- 23.39 seconds.

 Jamaica also won three of the four 800m gold medals with only the outstanding Barbadian Jonathon Jones who won the Under 18 boys gold medal in a big personal best 1 minute 49.85 seconds, beating Jamaica’s Anthony Cox into second place and Guadeloupe’s Lidji Mbaye taking the bronze.

 Cemore Donald, the 1500m champion, won her second gold medal when she took the Under 18 girls gold medal in 2 minutes 10.66 seconds, leading home teammate Chrisanni May 2:13.90 seconds and Bahamas’ Quanisha Marshall- 2:14.64 seconds.

 Junelle Bromfield ran the last 400m all by herself on her way to winning the Under 20 girls title in 2:06.21 seconds, well ahead of Tarika Moses of the British Virgin Islands- 2:11.20 seconds and Guyana’s Andrea Foster 2:12.43 seconds.

 Shevon Parkes picked up a second gold medal, with a strong performance in the under 20 boys 800, winning in 1:51.76 seconds, followed by teammate Nathan Brown- 1:52.99 seconds and Grenada’s Nathan Hood- 1:53.61 seconds.

 There was a bizarre finish to the boys 500m Open where it appeared the official missed the count and Jamaicans Shane Buchanan and Garfield Gordon were declared the gold and silver medallists and long time leader the Bahamas’ Benjamin Najman declared ‘did not finish’.

Najman had just lapped a slower runner when the bell indicating the  final lap was starting when he stopped and told the official that he had completed the event then walked away celebrating.

The two Jamaicans kept running and was later declared the top two but the decision was later reversed and the Bahamian given the gold in 15:24.25 seconds, Buchanan took the silver in 16:51.76 seconds and Gordon the bronze. In 16:59.05 seconds.

Jamaica added the four mile relay gold medals to the four they won in the 4x100m a day earlier.

The team of Shanoi Powell, Shiann Salmon, Stacey-Ann Williams and Sanique Walker won the Under 18 girls 4x400m in 3:39.31 seconds beating the Bahamas- 3:43.08 seconds and the British Virgin Islands third with 3:47.43 seconds.

The under-18 boys’ team of Dashinelle Dyer, Anthony Cox, Jhevaughn Matherson and Christopher Taylor ran 3:12.54 seconds to beat Barbados who led on the final lap, 3:13.16 seconds and Trinidad and Tobago 3:15.33 seconds.

Satanya Wright, Semoy Hemmings, Junelle Bromfield who ran a blistering leg to give the Jamaicans a big lead and Tiffany James ran 3:34.84 seconds to beat the Bahamas, 3:48.06 seconds, and Grenada 4:11.10 seconds.

The only real test came in the boys under-20 race where the Bahamas led going into the final leg but 400m winner Akeem Bloomfield easily caught the anchor leg runner and blew by him as they won in 3:10.55 seconds.

Jauavney James, Timor Barrett and Nathan Brown ran the first three legs.

Jamaica added two more medals on the morning’s penultimate session as Britney Kerr took second place in the under-20 girls’ high jump, beaten on the count back by Barbados’ Ashanti Phillips while Shakwon Coke was third in the under-18 boys’ long jump.

Both Kerr and Phillips cleared 1.73m and failed three times at 1.76m but the Barbadian had the edge having cleared 1.70m on her first attempt while it took the Jamaican three tries.

Anguilla’s Rechelle Meade took the bronze with 1.65m.

Coke had one legal jump, 7.05m (0.0m/s) in the final try in the first round to land a medal as Denvaughn Whymns of the Bahamas won with 7.16m (0.6m/s) and Guadeloupe’s Enzo Hodebar took the silver with 7.09m (-2.0m/s).

Aika Jones just failed to win a third medal when she placed fifth in the under-18 javelin throw with a best mark of 39.23m.

Cayman Islands’ Daneliz Thomas won the gold with 45.97m ahead of Grenada’s Holly Charles 44.75m and Trinidad and Tobago’s Asha Charles 44.44m.

Sahjay Stevens was third in the under-20 javelin with a best of 41.91m as Grenada’s Candesha Scott set a Championships Record 51.13m, breaking the 49.72m set last year by Jamaica’s Isheeka Binns.

Dominica’s Shanes Angol was second with 42.41m while Jamaica’s Devia Brown was fourth with 38.87m. 

Paul A Reid