Jamaica take 38th-straight Carifta Games title
Jamaica’s young track and field ambassadors marched to a 38th-straight and 46th Carifta Games title after dominating the final day of the regional three-day championships at the Kirani James Athletics Stadium in St Georges, Grenada, on Monday.
Jamaica finished with 84 medals, six better than last year in the Bahamas.
After starting the final day with 49 medals (24 gold, 15 silver and 10 bronze), the Jamaicans added 33 more medals on the final day — 19 gold, eight silver, and six bronze — for a final total of 45 gold, 23 silver and 16 bronze.
Jamaica finished champions on a high, sweeping the 4x400m relays after earlier in the day sweeping the gold medals in the sprint hurdles, but the championships ended under a cloud with a number of teams allowed to rerun the Under-20 Boys’ 4x400m relays.
A number of teams had stopped running early in the race as there appeared to have been a recall gun, signalling a false start, but a number of teams, including Jamaica, continued and were allowed to complete the race.
After the second race, Jamaica kept the gold with 3:10.58 minutes. Trinidad and Tobago, who won the second race with 3:11.10 seconds, were awarded silver
medals and the Bahamas, who ran 3:11.18 seconds, were given the bronze but subsequently disqualified with Grenada taking the final medal spot.
There was one new record set by a Jamaican. Jaeda Robinson broke the championship record in the Girls’ Under-17 triple jump with a best of 12.69m (-3.7m/s), beating the 12.61m set in 2009 by compatriot Rochelle Farquharson.
Robinson broke the 15-year-old record on her first jump which was measured at 12.66m (-2.0m/s) before extending her mark later in the competition.
Tessa Clamy of Guadeloupe took the silver with 12.09m (0.2m/s) and high jump champion Zavien Bernard was third with 11.63 (-3.4m/s).
The 200m finals lived up to expectations with a number of outstanding contests with Jamaicans winning three of the four races.
Gary Card ran a brilliant race to win with the Boys’ Under-20 gold medal with a big personal best 20.60 seconds (1.8m/s), third best in the world in the Under-20 age group, beating Barbados’ Aragon Straker -20.76 seconds with the 100m champion Devonte Howell of the Cayman Islands taking third with 20.90 seconds.
Shanoya Douglas showed off her superior top end speed as she came from third place in the final 60m to snatch the gold medal with a wind-aided 23.03 seconds (3.0m/s), Sole Frederick of Trinidad and Tobago was second with 23.07 seconds and 100m gold medallist Sabrina Dockery third with 23.13 seconds.
Defending champion Sanna Frederick was fourth while 400m champion Tiana Springer of Guyana did not show up for the race.
Natrece East atoned for her bronze medal last year when she won the Girls’ Under-17 200m, chasing and catching the fast-starting Athaleyha Hinckson of Guyana, the 100m champion.
East was timed in 23.74 seconds (0.9m/s), Hinckson took silver with 23.85 seconds an Tyra Fenton of Antigua/Barbuda took the bronze with 23.97 seconds.
Trinidad and Tobago’s Kadeem Chinapoo upgraded his silver medal in the 100m to gold in the Boys’ Under-17 200m running 21.78 seconds (0.9m/s), as Jamaica’s Oshane Jervis limped across the finish line with 22.16 seconds with Tiondre Frett of the British Virgin Islands was third with 22.18 seconds.
The Jamaicans swept the sprint hurdles with Shaquan Gordon who was disqualified long after he won last year and Habiba Harris getting redemption in their boys’ and girls’ Under-20 finals, respectively.
Gordon was on the plane heading back to Jamaica from the Bahamas last year when news reached that he had been disqualified for a false start.
On Monday he made no mistake and got off to a great start in the 110m hurdles final and bested a strong field with a slightly wind-aided 13.15 seconds (2.1m/s), beating his teammate Daniel Beckford -13.25 with Curacao’s Lizheng Zhuang taking third place with 13.94 seconds.
FINAL MEDAL TABLE
Rank Country G S B Total
1. Jamaica 45 23 16 84
2. Bahamas 9 13 12 34
3. Trinidad and Tobago 4 11 12 27
4. Guyana 4 3 2 9
5. Guadeloupe 2 1 2 5
6. US Virgin Islands 2 0 1 3
7. Grenada 1 6 6 13
8. Cayman Islands 1 1 2 4
9. Antigua and Barbuda 1 0 3 4
10. St Lucia 1 0 1 2