Clay­ton Clarke

Kene­jah Williams put Trinidad and To­ba­go on the medal ta­ble on the open­ing day of ac­tion, as the 41st CARIF­TA Games got un­der­way in Na­tion­al Sports Cen­tre, De­von­shire, Bermu­da yes­ter­day. Mean­while, Mark Lon­don de­liv­ered T&T's first track medal when he fin­ished third in the boys un­der 20 1500m fi­nals in 4:06:64 be­hind Ja­maican Orane Wint (4:06:05) and Edgar Mar­beq (St Lu­cia) 4:06:34. Lon­don took the ear­ly lead but was over­tak­en with less than two laps to go. Mar­beq tried to get past the Ja­maican in the fi­nal 100m but Wint held on for the vic­to­ry. Nicholas Lan­deau was 10th (4:27:65). In the girls un­der 20 1500m fi­nals Dawnel Col­ly­more was sixth in a slow time of 5:14:94. Ear­li­er, Williams grabbed the sil­ver medal in the boys un­der 17 shot put fi­nals with a per­son­al best of 16.75m. Tak­ing the gold ahead of Scar­bor­ough Sec­ondary stu­dent was De­mar Gayle of Ja­maica who won in 17.31 with Ba­hami­an Drex­el May­cock fin­ish­ing third in 15.67. Williams im­proved on third place fin­ish at the 2011 Games in Mon­tego Bay Ja­maica. T&T's oth­er ath­lete Shaquille Sin­guineau was sixth in 13.89 (pb).

Meri­ah Free­man was fifth in the girls un­der 17 high jump fi­nals with a leap of 1.55m, 5m off her qual­i­fy­ing best of 1.60m, the same dis­tance cleared by the gold medal­list Je­hva­nia White (Ja­maica) and run­ner-up Nar­gao­lis Sta­tie (Cu­ra­cao).

Sama­ra Spencer (Ja­maica) and Miquel Roach (Ba­hamas) al­so cleared 1.55m as Free­man but fin­ished ahead of the D'Abadie Pro­gres­sive ath­lete. Ayana Glas­gow was sched­uled to com­pete but opt­ed out to fo­cus on the girls open Pen­tathlon. The To­co TAFAC ath­lete was third af­ter the first two events, the 100m hur­dles and shot put. Glas­gow was third in both events (100m hur­dles-in 15.84 to score 734 points), and (shot put-7.79/386). The To­co Sec­ondary ath­lete was set to con­test the third event, High jump, yes­ter­day af­ter­noon. Machel Ce­de­nio was the lone quar­ter­mil­er in ac­tion in the 400m heats. The 2011 boys un­der 17 200/400 cham­pi­on clocked the third quick­est time in the boys un­der 20 pre­lims, cross­ing the line in 50.07 to top heat two. De­fend­ing cham­pi­on O'Jay Fer­gu­son (Ba­hamas) topped the field in 49.89. There were no lo­cal en­trants in the girls un­der 17 and boys un­der 17 one lap events. Ker­ne­sha Spann will con­test the girls un­der 20 fi­nals as there were on­ly eight en­trants. Pow­er­house Ja­maica are ahead of the medal ta­ble at the end of the morn­ing ses­sion with four gold and two bronze.

Tak­ing the first ti­tle of this year's cham­pi­onships was Ja­maica's reign­ing World Youth cham­pi­on Fredrick Dacres land­ing the boys un­der 20 dis­cus gold in 58.57m. Guade­loupe is next in the stand­ings with one gold and one sil­ver af­ter Ya­nis David fin­ished ahead of her com­pa­tri­ot Maraine Vi­dal in the girls un­der 17 triple jump fi­nals. Ba­hamas is next with one sil­ver and three bronze. T&T was joint fourth with French Guinea, and Cu­ra­cao with one sil­ver each. Ear­ly in the af­ter­noon ses­sion Nicholas Dou­glas and Ron Wright booked their spots in the boys un­der 17 100m fi­nals. In the pre­lim­i­nar­ies Dou­glas was third in heat two in 10.86 (+3.3) and ad­vanced as one of the three au­to­mat­ic qual­i­fiers while Wright was fourth in heat one in 10.98 (+4.2) and got in­to the fi­nals eight as one of the two fastest losers. The fi­nals were con­test­ed late yes­ter­day. Jesse Berkley and Jonathan Hold­er bowed out in the boys un­der 20 100m pre­lims. Berkley was third in heat one of four races in 10.96 while Hold­er was fourth in 10.84 in sec­ond heat. With on­ly the win­ners as­sured of qual­i­fi­ca­tion to the medal round the pair was not quick enough as Hold­er was 13th and Berke­ly 16th. Zhar­nel Hugh­es (An­guil­la) was the top qual­i­fi­er with 10.44 (+3.0) with Jonathan Far­quhar­son (Ba­hamas) and Tahir Walsh (An­tigua and Bar­bu­da) next fastest on 10.50. Mark Lon­don and Nicholas Lan­deau were in ac­tion in the boys un­der 20 1500m fi­nals, while Chreise Mur­ray (girls un­der 20 shot put fi­nals), Aki­dah Brig­gs (girls un­der 17 javelin), Ed­son Moses (boys un­der 17 high jump fi­nals) vied for medals last night.

Se­lect­ed Re­sults

Boys un­der 17 shot put fi­nals

1 De­mar Gayle Ja­maica 17.31m

2 Kene­jah Williams T&T 16.75m pb

3 Drex­el May­cock Ba­hamas 15.67

6 Shaquilee Sin­guineau T&T 13.89 pb

Girls un­der 17 High jump fi­nals

1 Je­hva­nia Whyte Ja­maica 1.60m

2 Nar­gao­lis Sta­tie Cu­ra­cao 1.60m

3 Samaria Spencer Ja­maica 1.55m

5 Meri­ah Free­man T&T 1.55m

Boys un­der 20 400m pre­lims

1 Jay Fer­gu­son Ba­hamas 49.89 1h1

2 Lennox Williams Ja­maica 50.05 2h1

3 Machel Ce­de­nio T&T 50.07 1h2

Girls Open Pen­tathlon

3 Ayana Glas­gow T&T 1144 (af­ter two events)

Event 1- 100m hur­dles

3 Glas­gow 15.84 734

Event 2-Shot Put

3 Glas­gow 7.79 386

Boys un­der 17 100m pre­lims

1 Michael O'Hara Ja­maica 10.70

1 Mario Burke Bar­ba­dos 10.70

3 Cliff Re­sias Ba­hamas 10.72

5 Nicholas Dou­glas T&T 10.86Q

7 Ron Wright T&T 10.98q

Boys un­der 20 100m pre­lims

13 Jonathan Hold­er T&T 10.84 dnq

16 Jesse Berklet T&T 10.96dnq

Boys un­der 20 dis­cus fi­nals

1 Fedrick Dacres Ja­maica 58.57m

2 Dean-Nick Allen French Guiana 53.50

3 Ashinia Miller Ja­maica 50.37

Girls un­der 20 Triple jump fi­nals

1 Sab­ri­na Allen Ja­maica 12.18m

2 Tama­ra My­ers Ba­hamas 11.62

3 An­thonique But­ler Ba­hamas 11.43

Girls un­der 17 Triple jump fi­nals

1 Ya­nis David Guade­loupe 12.73

2 Ma­rine Vi­dal Guade­loupe 12.21

3 Tama­ra Mon­crieffe Ja­maica 11.57