Green Island's Damion Young won the Boys Class One 100m at last week Tuesday's Western Champs at Catherine Hall and also set the meet record in the long jump with 7.42m, the best mark by a schoolboy in Jamaica this year. He was second in the Under-20 boys' long jump and third in the 100m at CARIFTA Trials. - Paul Reid / Staff Photographer WESTERN BUREAU:
WESTERN ATHLETES featured prominently among the winners at last weekend's CARIFTA Games trials that were held at the GC Foster Sports College in St. Catherine.
IAAF World Junior Championships gold medal winner Usaine Bolt, of William Knibb Memorial, led the way as the juniors vied for places on the team to compete at the CARIFTA Games to be held in Trinidad and Tobago over the Easter weekend.
In addition to Bolt, who made the team in the Under-20 boys 200m and 400m, Cornwall College's Jermaine Downie, Herbert Morrison's Nickesha Anderson, St. Elizabeth Technical's (STETHS) Davita Prendergast and former Mannings athlete, Nadia Alexander, were also winners.
Bolt easily won the Under-20 boys 200m in 21.33 seconds, then returned less than half an hour later to take second in the 400m in 47.82 seconds behind Tacius Golding's Jermaine Gonzales.
Herbert Morrison's Kiel Brown was sixth in the 400m and seventh in the 200m, finishing behind Muschett's Mario Forsythe in the 200m.
Downie sped to victory in the under-17 boys 100m on Friday's first day in 10.88 seconds but, despite having the third best time after the heats of the 200m and being the pre-race favourite, did not take his place at the start.
Munro College's Conray Wright was third in the Boys under-17 100m and seventh in the 200m.
Green Island's Damion Young led for 80m in the Under-20 boys 100m before finishing third in 10.51 second behind winner Tesfa Lattey of St. Georges and Camperdown's Winston Hutton who were both credited with 10.43 seconds times.
Young was also second in the long jump with a mark of 7.29m beaten for the first time this season in the event as St George's College's Adrian Wiltshire had a personal best 7.32m mark.
Lewisville's Orette Remekie took second place in the boys under-20 800m in a personal best 1:54.47 seconds but disappointed in the 1500m finishing well down the field and out of contention.
Cornwall College's Roxroy Campbell took second in the under-17 boys long jump with 6.43m as Kingston College's Alain Bailey won the long jump/high jump double with marks of 2.00m and 6.81m respectively.
Munro College's Rajeif Jobson had two second places, in the under-17 boys javelin and shot put and was fourth in the shot put.
Herbert Morrison's Lorne Campbell was third in the Boys under-20 110m hurdles. The event was run as a time finals and Campbell won the first heat in 14.98 seconds.
Anderson and Prendergast who were members of the team to the WJC last year claimed their first Trials titles in the Under-20 girls 200 and 400m respectively.
Anderson, who was also third in the 100m in 11.74 seconds, took the 200m in 24.46 seconds. Prendergast who is one of the most improved athletes on the junior scene, was an easy winner in the 400m in 54.28 second as Lewisville's Maxine Foster stole third place in 55.08 seconds while STETHS Sherika Williams was fourth in 55.13 seconds.
Former Mannings thrower, Nadia Alexander, who now attends St. Hughes, won the Under-20 girls' shot putt after a disappointing effort in the discus, while Lewisville's Merrisa Daley was second in the Under-17 girls high jump, equalising her best effort of the season with 1.60m.
- P. A. R.
