Jamaicans sweep gold in 400m hurdles at Carifta Games
Mills, Lampart shine in Girls’ shot put
Jamaican athletes swept the 400m hurdles gold medals on Sunday’s second day of the 53rd Carifta Games at Kirani James Athletics Stadium in St George’s, Grenada.
Even as the championships were held up on Sunday by intermittent rain, the Jamaicans dominated, and at press time were well ahead in the medals tables.
They had 36 medals including 13 gold, 13 silver and 10 bronze, followed by Trinidad and Tobago with 17 medals (five gold, seven silver and five bronze), and The Bahamas with 15 medals (three gold, six silver and six bronze). Guyana had won three gold, a silver and a bronze, ahead of Grenada (two gold, a silver and five bronze), and Cayman Islands (two gold medals and two bronze).
Jahvanie Tyrell had a strong second half of the race to win the Boys’ Under-20 400m hurdles in 50.35 seconds. Trinidad and Tobago’s Omari Brown caught and passed defending champion Robert Miller on the line to take the silver medal with 50.91. Miller, the pre-championships favourite, had to settle for bronze in 50.97.
After missing the Class 2 final during the ISSA Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships late last month, Oneil Lawrence made amends by winning the Boys’ Under-17 400m hurdles, running 53.06.
His compatriot Kavian Minnott took silver with 53.36, just ahead of Grenada’s Tevaughn Hall (53.45).
Nastassia Fletcher ran away with the gold medal in the Girls’ Under-20 400m hurdles, clocking 58.05 to finish well ahead of her teammate Marria Crossfield (58.74). Trinidad’s Jenna Marie Thomas was third in 59.20.
In the Girls’ Under-17 final, Alyssa Carty upgraded her bronze medal from last year to gold after running 1:01.84.
Hope Edwards gave Haiti their first medal with the silver in 1:02.48. Jamaica’s Imani Lowe was third with 1:03.69.
Sushanna Johnson took bronze in the Girls’ Open 3,000m that was won by Trinidad and Tobago’s Aniqah Bailey. Laila McIntyre of Barbados won the silver medal.
In the morning session, United States-based Jamaican Able Mills won the Girls’ Under-20 shot put with 15.27m, ahead of Trinidad and Tobago’s Peyton Winter who took the silver medal with 14.14m. Last year’s gold medallist and record holder Marla-Kay Lampart of Jamaica was third with 13.81m.
Another defending champion, Michael-Andre Edwards, lost his title when he was second in the Boys’ Under-20 long jump with a best mark of 7.47m (-1.0m/s).
Carlin Archer of The Bahamas won with 7.68m (0.5m/s) while his compatriot Joshua Williams finished third with 7.16m (0.5m/s).
Kaliah Haye of Cayman Islands retained her Girls’ Under-17 discus throw title with 47.06m, followed by Jamaicans Dajounae Rudolph (45.13m) and Zoeyann Plummer (43.83m).
Shanoya Douglas stayed on course to retain her Girls’ Under-20 sprint double title as after retaining her 100m title on Saturday, she ran a wind-aided 23.46 (3.3m/s) to advance to the finals of the 200m, along with Natrece East who clocked 23.77 (0/7m/s).
Sanjay Seymore will hope to make amends after he was disqualified in the Boys’ Under-20 100m final. He clocked 20.89 (0.5m/s) on Sunday to qualify for Monday’s 200m finals.
Elijah Smeikle is also through after he ran 21.00 (0.9m/s).
Shayon Smith ran 24.14 (0.2m/s) and Danelia Clarke timed 24.31 (-0.3m/s) to qualify for the Girls’ Under-17 200m final, while Mario Ross, who clocked 21.48 (0.4m/s), and Tyler Morgan, with a wind-aided 21.56 (3.3m/s), are through to the Boys’ Under-17 final.
Joel Morgan executed a well-paced race to qualify for the Under-20 Boys’ 800m final in 1:53.72. He is to be joined by Malike Anderson, who ran 1:54.32.
Luke Plummer, who ran 2:00.76 minutes, and Markland Williams (2:01.81) are through to the final of the Under-17 Boys’ 800m.
Aneka Lowe advanced to the Girls’ Under-17 800m final with 2:18.55, but Kemaya Graham failed to advance after running 2:23.01.
Jamaica’s Under-20 Boys’ 4x100m relay team advanced to the final with the sixth best time — 40.71 — after they placed fourth in their semi-final heat.