KINGSTON, Jamaica— Jamaica won three silver medals on Saturday morning’s first session of the 53rd Carifta Games, which is being held at the Kirani James Athletics Stadium in St George’s, Grenada.

Zoelle Jamel was second in the Girls’ Under-20 javelin throw with 47.19m, beaten by defending champion Taysha Stubbs of the Bahamas, who retained her title with a mark of 48.84m.

A second Bahamian, Kamera Strachan, took the bronze medal with 44.88m.

Stefvanco Henry cleared 1.69m to take the silver medal in the Girls’ Under-17 high jump, which was won by St Lucia’s Destinee Cenac, who was third last year, winning with 1.72m.

Barbados’ Shania Mottley, who was second last year, was third with 1.69m, with Jamaica’s Kemoya Campbell fourth with 1.63m.

The third silver came in the Girls’ Under-17 shot put, where Shamanda Wilmot threw 13.99m for second.

Gabriella Linton of Cayman retained her title with 14.19m, with her teammate Kaliah Haye taking third place with 13.97m.

Meanwhile, seven of the eight 100m runners advanced to the final set for the afternoon session, while all eight 400m runners qualified for their final.

Defending champion Shanoya Douglas is on course to defend her Girls’ Under-20 crown as she qualified with 11.88 seconds (-3.8m/s) along with Natrece East, who led the qualifying with wind-aided 11.28 seconds (6.0m/s).

Nyron Wade- 10.49 seconds (-0.1m/) and Sanjay Seymore- 10.43 seconds (0.9m/s) are through to the Boys’ Under- 20 finals, as well as Kai Kelly 10.46 seconds (1.8m/s) and Joshua Ricketts- 10.62 seconds (1.3m/s) in the Boys’ Under -17 section.

Azaria Harris will be the only Jamaican in the Girls’ Under- 17 final after running a wind-aided 11.42 seconds (3.8m/s), as Rihanna Scott failed to make progress after she was 10th overall with 11.95 seconds (-0.9m/s).

Diwayne Sharpe, 48.86 seconds and Jason Pitter, 49.60 seconds, are through to the Boys’ Under-17 400m finals; Shameika McLean, 55.00 seconds and Daniellia Dixon, 57.34 seconds, made progress in the Girls’ Under- 17.

Zachary Wallace, 46.47 seconds, and Jabari Matheson, 46.70 seconds, will hope to get medals in the Boys’ Under- 20 400m, while Davine Dickenson, 54.11 seconds and Breana Brown, 54.93 seconds, will contest the Girls’ Under-20 finals.

-Paul A Reid