- PHOTO BY ANTHONY FOSTER
The Jamaica team makes its entrance during the opening ceremony of the Carifta Games in Tobago yesterday.
Anthony Foster, Freelance Writer
BACOLET, Tobago:
REGIONAL TRACK and field kingpins Jamaica made a clean sweep of the 1,500 metres titles on yesterday's opening day of the XXXIV Carifta Games at the Dwight Yorke Stadium.
Despite a rainy and windy entire opening day, defending boys' Under-20 champion Andre Drummond, Jodian Richards, Natoya Goule and Theon O'Connor, made things look easy in securing their victories.
Richards won her race in 4:38.56, beating Trinidadian Pilar McShine (4:41.11) and last weekend's Class Two Girls' Champs winner, Petrone Layne (4:45.52).
Goule, who has not lost a race all season, won the Under-17 girls' category in 4:39.05 ahead of her teammate, Taneisha Davis (4:44.45), as both took control of the field from the first lap.
In the boys' section, O'Connor, a student at Campion College, won in 4:05.59. He got in ahead of homeboy Gavyn Nero (4:07.99) and fellow Jamaican Andre Thomas (4:10.41).
However, it was St. Jago's Steve Hammond who won Jamaica's first gold medal of the Games, throwing 51.32 metres to win the boys' Under-20 discus. He defeated his teammate and third-place finisher Camoi Hood (46.81m), who beat him at Boys' Champs last weekend. St. Vincent and the Grenadines' Adonson Shallon was second with a throw of 49.69m.
Hammond, who had a foul throw which landed beyond the 52-metre mark, had this to say after his first Carifta gold medal performance.
"I am just happy to be here for the second time, representing my country and to be able to bring home the gold for it," he said.
"I am a bit disappointed that I didn't do my personal best but, as you can see, it's raining here. I did my best," he said.
The country's lone competitor in the boys' Under-17 high jump, Darrell Simpson, finished a disappointing seventh after clearing 1.75 metres. Simpson, who hit down the bar three times at 1.80m, lost out to Bahamian Raymond Higgs (1.85m) and Kijaun Wilkinson of Bermuda (1.85m).
Sonita Sutherland easily won the girls' Under-20 400m dash in 54.22 seconds, beating her Holmwood and Jamaican teammate Anastasia Le-Roy who was second in 55.19.
In the 400m Under-17 girls' event, Lotaya McDermott (55.00) was second behind Trinidad and Tobago's Britony St. Louis, who won in 54.79.
In the boys' section, Kevin Williams (49.70) and Barthlette Barnette (50.35) were fifth and sixth respectively behind winner Kevin Morgan of Trinidad and Tobago (48.15).
