Jamaica produced a dominant opening-day performance at the North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletic Association (NACAC) Under-18 and Under-23 Championships in Apizaco, Mexico, winning 16 medals, including eight gold, on Friday.

Bouwahjgie Nkrumie and Lavanya Williams led the charge by winning the Under-23 men’s and women’s 100m titles, while Jamaica also swept both mixed 4x400m relay gold medals in the Under-18 and Under-23 categories.

Additional gold medals came from Joseph Salmon in the Under-23 discus throw, Kamari Kennedy in the Under-18 discus throw, Antonio Anderson in the Under-18 boys’ triple jump and Zavien Bernard in the Under-18 girls’ triple jump.

Nkrumie and Williams also delivered after they both led their qualifying in the morning session with wind-aided wins in their respective finals with Jamaica winning gold and silver in each race.

Nkrumie clocked 9.92 seconds (2.7m/s) for his win with Damor Miller second with 10.03 seconds and Puerto Rico’s Adrian Canales taking the bronze with 10.08 seconds.

Williams ran 10.91 seconds (2.1m/s) with Alana Reid second with 11.05 seconds and Frances Colon of Puerto Rico finishing third with 11.23 seconds.

Kai Kelly took the silver medal in the men’s Under-18 final after clocking 10.34 seconds (1.6m/s), just behind Trinidad and Tobago’s Mekhi Guischard-Yearwood, who won in 10.33 seconds with his teammate J’Quan Douglas taking third in 10.48 seconds. Jamaica’s Tyler Morgan ran a personal best 10.57 seconds for fifth place.

Malayia Duncan lowered her personal best for the second time on Friday when she ran 11.54 seconds (1.8m/s) for the silver medal in the women’s Under-18 100m. Jazae Johnson of The Bahamas won with 11.42 seconds and Costa Rica’s Rihana Mora Saint was third with 11.59 seconds while Jamaica’s Daniela Clarke was sixth with 11.76 seconds.

Salmon threw 57.19m to win the Under-23 discus throw, well ahead of Puerto Rico’s Nathan Villegas (54.79m) and Mexico’s Antonio Diaz (49.83m).

Anderson jumped 14.93m (-0.7m/s) in the men’s Under-18 triple jump to beat Jenico Gibson of The Bahamas 14.55m (-1.5m/s) with Talshawn Edwards taking bronze with 14.43m (0.5m/s). Bernard, who is unbeaten in the triple jump outdoors this year, took another gold with 12.73m (-0.6m/s).

Identical twins Britannie Johnson (52.58m) and Britannia Johnson (51.72m) took the silver and bronze medals respectively in the women Under-23 discus throw that was won by Trinidad’s Lalenii Grant with 53.72m.

Zoeyann Plummer was second in the women’s Under-18 discus throw with 44.25m, beaten by Mexico’s Kendra Silvery Duany with 48.02m with Jamie Lee Tulloch fifth with 38.52m.

— Paul A Reid