Gleaner Honour Awardee Usain Bolt put in record-breaking performances at Champs. WESTERN BUREAU:
FRESH FROM his double record-breaking performance at last weekend's VMBS Boys and Girls Champs, Gleaner Honour Awardee Usain Bolt, of William Knibb, is one of five western athletes named to represent the island at next weekend's CARIFTA Games in Trinidad and Tobago.
Bolt, Damion Young of Green Island and Nickesha Anderson of Herbert Morrison return to the team from last year while Davita Prendergast of St Elizabeth Technical and Jermaine Downie of Cornwall College are newcomers.
Herbert Morrison's coach Claude Grant and Munro's coach Neil Harrison were also named to the six-member coaching staff for the team, which leaves next Thursday. The team was chosen from results of the CARIFTA Games Trials held February 28-March 1 and also from the performances at Champs last weekend.
WESTERN TEAMS OUT OF THE FRAME
For the first time in many years, none of the western schools managed to get into the top 10 in the points standings of either the boys or the girls section. Mannings which was the best placed boys western school in 11th place with 36 points tied with Morant Bay. Herbert Morrison tied Vere Technical for 13th place with 30 points. STETHS and Munro were 15th and 14th respectively with 24 and 23 points, while William Knibb finished 17th with 22 points 18 of which were scored by Bolt.
Cornwall College finished 22nd with 15 points, followed by Lewisville in 24th place with 13 points. Green Island scored eight points to be joint 32nd, followed by Maldon in 35th place with seven points and Muschett in 45th place with one point.
STETHS was tops among the western girls schools with 34.5 points in 12th place while Mannings was 14th with 22 points. Herbert Morrison Technical was 17th with 19.5 points, followed by Mt. Alvernia in 22nd place with 12 points, Lewisville and Hampton tied in 24th place with eight points and Albert Town in 26th place with seven points.
SETTING NEW STANDARDS
On Saturday, the last day of the four-day Champs, Bolt, running like a man possessed, captured the Boys Class I 200/400m double, both in new records. The long-awaited clash with defending champion Jermaine Gonzales of Tacius Golding in the 400m fizzled as Gonzales pulled up after just 250m with a hamstring cramp. Bolt raced to a time of 45.35 seconds, lowering the old mark of 46.22 set in 1996 by Ardenne's Michael Campbell.
The 16-year-old 'man-child' returned less than three hours after to smash the second record of the day, lowering the 200m record to an amazing 20.25 seconds, decimating the old time of 20.79 seconds set last year by Vere Technical's Steve Mullings. Bolt's time in the 200m set a new national junior record, bettering the mark of 20.48 held by former Calabar speedster Roy Bailey. In addition to Bolt's two gold medals, western athletes managed just one more gold, six silver and three bronze medals.
