Kimeka Smith seeks to win back-to-back shot put title
KINGSTON, Jamaica— St Jago High’s Kimeka Smith will be seeking back-to-back girls’ Class 2 shot put when she lines up in the final on Wednesday’s second day of the ISSA GraceKennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships at the National Stadium.
She was the leader in Tuesday’s eliminations and could threaten the six-year-old shot put record.
Smith, who threw 15.82m to win last year, has a personal best 16.20m, better than the Champs record 15.99m set by Immaculate Conception’s Daniel Sloley in 2018. She could become the first Class 2 girl to go over the 16.00m mark.
On Tuesday, she needed just one throw to get past the automatic qualifying mark of 14.00m and with 14.73m she got the standard along with two other athletes.
Clarendon College’s Marla-Kay Lampart who was fifth last year, threw 14.26m on her only attempt while Edwin Allen’s Dionjah Shaw who was fourth last year, needed all three efforts to get 14.03m.
Immaculate Conception High’s Jaeda Robinson jumped a wind-aided 5.79m (4.7m/s) on her first attempt, over the automatic qualifying mark of 5.55m to book her spot in the final of the Class 2 long jump.
Excelsior High’s Shelly-Ann Taylor-5.64m (3.7m/s), St Jago High’s Jenlle Canns- 5.62m (4.9m/s) and St Catherine High’s Rihanna Chambers jumped 5.56m (3.0m/s).
Najhada Seymoure of Excelsior High led the Class 1 discus throw with 45.83 seconds, Edwin Allen’s Shamoyea Morris was next with 44.48 seconds, Clarendon College’s Carla-Kay Brown threw 42.09m and Excelsior High’s Gianna Clayton threw 41.13m.
Immaculate Conception’s Zoelle Jamel, who was third in the javelin Open a year ago, led the qualifying on Tuesday with 37.73m, needing only one throw to get the automatic qualifying of 36.00m as Imani Lowe of St Catherine High, who was 10th last year, also got the automatic mark with 36.06m on her second throw.
-Paul A Reid