JAMAICA sent a timely reminder of its sprinting prowess by winning three of the four 100m gold medals on opening day of the 52nd Carifta Games at Hasely Crawford Stadium in Port of Spain, Trinidad, yesterday.

After struggling earlier in the 400m and 1500m events, the Jamaicans roared back to take over the lead in the medal count on a day full of drama as defending champion in the Under-20 women’s 100m Sabrina Dockery was disqualified following a false start in the final, while both Jamaicans pulled up in the Under-20 men’s 400m final and failed to finish the race.

A meet record in the Under-17 men’s triple jump by Amani Phillips late on Saturday, however, helped to raise the spirits in the Jamaican camp.

Jamaica led with 19 medals after the first day, consisting of seven gold, six silver and six bronze, followed closely by The Bahamas with 12 — six gold, four silver and two bronze — with Trinidad and Tobago in third place with five medals consisting of two gold, a silver and a bronze.

Antigua and Barbuda, Cayman Islands, Grenada, Guyana and St Lucia all won one gold.

By comparison, Jamaica are well off last year’s medal pace as after the first day in Grenada they had amassed 26 medals — 12 gold, eight silver and six bronze — going into the second day.

Jamal Stephenson and Shanoya Douglas both ran personal best times to win the Under-20 men’s and women’s 100m titles, respectively, while Michael Graham won the Under 17 title.

Stephenson ran a huge lifetime-best 10.24 seconds (-1.4m/s), lowering his previous best of 10.38 seconds to take his first Carifta gold medal while beating Trinidad and Tobago’s Dylan Woodruffe- 10.30 seconds and Granada’s Ethan Sam- 10.41 seconds, both also lowering their bests as well.

Jamaica’s Antonio Powell was fifth in 10.51 seconds.

After Dockery’s disqualification Douglas, the 200m champion from last year, delivered in a big way, running 11.26 seconds (0.3m/s), comfortably ahead of the field and under her previous best of 11.28 seconds set last year.

The usually mild-tempered runner celebrated exuberantly, beating her chest and waving to the crowd, saying later that jeers from the stands directed towards the Jamaican team had sparked a fire in her.

Antigua and Barbuda’s Geolyna Dowdye took the silver medal in 11.43 seconds, just ahead of Shatalya Dorsett of The Bahamas who took the bronze medal with 11.45 seconds.

Graham clocked 10.53 seconds (0.0m/s) to win the Under-17 men’s 100m gold, getting to the finishing line ahead of Tiondre Frett of the British Virgin Islands- 10.58 seconds and Jamaica’s Jaydon Collins was third in 10.68 seconds.

Adora Campbell repeated her silver medal performance from last year after she ran 10.67 seconds (0.2m/s) in the Under-17 women’s 100m, beaten by St Lucia’s Jady Emmanuel who ran a personal best 11.50 seconds while Brion Ward from The Bahamas was third with 11.78 seconds.

Phillips won the Under-17 men’s triple jump with a wind-aided 15.58m (3.0m/s) but his second-best mark, 15.26m (-0.7m/s), was better than the previous meet record 15.19m set in 2013 by Miguel Van Assen of Suriname.

Grenada’s Crystophe Calliste of Grenada was second with a wind-aided 15.25m (3.1m/s), and Jamaica’s Khi-Anthony Hall was third, also with a wind-aided 14.21m (2.5m/s).