Technical flaw denies Wright national junior record
CARIFTA Games bronze medallist Chad Wright of Calabar High School was denied the national junior record in the discus event at last Saturday’s King of the Ring Development meet at Kingston College due to a technical flaw.
Wright’s massive throw of 57.52 metres (1.75KG), which eclipsed the current record of 57.18m established by his schoolmate Travis Smikle at the 2009 Junior Pan American Games in Trinidad and Tobago, could not be verified due to the absence of the steel tape.
According to rule 148 of the IAAF Competition Rule Book: “For track and field events in competition under rules 1.1(a), (b), (c) and (f), all measurements shall be made with a calibrated certified steel tape or bar or with scientific measuring device.”
The absence of the steel tape means that Wright, who has attained the automatic qualifying standard for the World Junior Championships in Monition, Canada this summer, will have to try and break the national junior record at a later date. The World Junior qualifying standard is 54.00m.
Meanwhile, Wright, who had been playing second fiddle to Smikle all season, turned the tables on his more established teammate, who won Jamaica’s first ever medal in a throwing event on the world stage last summer.
Smikle, who secured the bronze at last summer’s World Youth Championships in Italy, could only muster 56.25m for second place. Kingston College’s Oshane Harris was third with 51.81m.
In the meantime, Wright also won the Class One shot put last Saturday with a creditable mark of 17.36m. Two of his Calabar teammates — Ashinia Miller with 16.58m and Randale Watson with 15.96m were second and third, respectively.