Rachael Thom­spon-King

Sprint­er Khal­i­fa St Fort clocked the fastest time in women's Un­der-20 100 me­tres dash in the pre­lim­i­nary round but lat­er opt­ed out of the event on day one of the Na­tion­al As­so­ci­a­tion Ath­let­ic Ad­min­is­tra­tions' (NAAA) Na­tion­al Ju­nior Cham­pi­onships, yes­ter­day.

St Fort ex­cit­ed spec­ta­tors at the Dwight Yorke Sta­di­um in To­ba­go qual­i­fy­ing in a time of 11.53 sec­onds but left them want­i­ng af­ter fail­ing to line-up in the semi­fi­nal round and ul­ti­mate­ly the fi­nal.

In­stead, the good turnout was treat­ed to her train­ing part­ner Sara Wol­las­ton, com­plet­ing a com­fort­able win in 12.04 with Sim­plex's Skiky­la Wal­cott in 12.14 and Ja­da Bark­er of Cougars in 12.26 fol­low­ing her to the line, re­spec­tive­ly.

St Fort will like­ly put more em­pha­sis on the Se­nior Track and Field Cham­pi­onships which is card­ed from June 24-26 at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um as she seeks like many of T&T's elite ath­letes to qual­i­fy to com­pete at this year's Olympic Games in Rio de Janiero in Brazil in Au­gust.

In the men's ver­sion of the race, Carif­ta gold medal­list Akan­ni His­lop of Zenith in was in great form, cross­ing in 10.57, to take the gold medal with Chad Richards of ZC, se­cur­ing sil­ver in 10.77 in Abi­lene Wild­cats' Jerod El­cock in 10.83, to close out the open­ing day of the ju­nior meet.

Ear­li­er, Ja­cob St Clair of Abi­lene won the Men's U-20 400m in 47.19 ahead of sec­ond place Kashief King of Point Fortin New Jets (PFNJ) in 47.39 and third place Ju­dah Tay­lor, al­so of Abi­lene in 47.87.

The women's U-20 400m race, had those in at­ten­dance at the edge of their seats as Khe­mani Roberts of Kaizen Pan­thers and Jerisa James of Mem­phis bat­tled to the line but in the end it was Roberts, who at­tends Cop­pin State Uni­ver­si­ty, emerg­ing with the gold in 57.44. James stayed on for the sil­ver clock­ing 57.49 with Ale­na Clarke of Utt Fast Track third in 58.96.

Over on the field, Safiya John of Kaizen Pan­thers was dom­i­nat­ing the U-16 di­vi­sion. She picked two gold medals in win­ning the Javelin and long jump events. Her best toss of 40.22 me­tres put her on top of the podi­um in the javelin throw to beat Melis­sa Box­hill of Cougars (39.61) in­to sec­ond and third was Tehealia Kennedy of Zenith in 33.55.

She was bet­ter than Mem­phis duo Jeneil Mor­ris (4.62) and Jay­da Williams (4.50) in the long jump, reg­is­ter­ing a dis­tance of 5.48, to claim vic­to­ry.

Se­lect­ed re­sults

Women

100m

U-18

1 Je­nea Spinks (Con­corde) - 11.79

2 Akeera Es­delle (PFNJ - 12.08

3 Ay­la Stanis­claus (Zenith) - 12.24

U-16

1 Deleth Charles (Mem­phis) - 12.15

2 Nao­mi Camp­bell (PFNJ) - 12.31

3 Shani­qua Bas­combe (Cougars) -12.33

100m Hur­dles

U-16

1 Rae - Anne Serville (Mem­phis) - 15.49

2 Safiya John (Kaizen) - 16.85

3 Melis­sa Box­hill (Cougars) - 16.92

U-18

1 Anya Ak­ili (Kaizen) - 14.62

2 Chezi­ah Phillip (To­co Ti­tans) - 15.00

U-20

1 Jem­i­nise Par­ris (Mem­phis) - 14.19

400m

U-18

1 On­al Mitchell (PFNJ) - 49.10

2 Zi­dane Mar­tin (I G Fast­lane) - 50.04

3 Jahi Her­nan­dez (Abi­lene) - 50.21

U-16

1 Kay­lon Thom­son (Abi­lene) - 51.11

2 Ethan Forde (Cougars) - 52.09

3 Chazz Alexan­der (Pa­lo Seco) - 52.25

1,500m

U-18

1 Ker­shel MC In­tyre (Cougars) - 5:27.72

2 Silin­ni Acos­ta (Ma­son Hall) - 5:41.88

3 Del­isha Paul (DPAC) - 5:56.34

U-20

1 Michaele Williams (Utt Fast Track) - 5:32.92

2 Anisa Samuel (Abi­lene) - 6:27.09

1,000m

U-16

1 Camile Lewis (San­gre Grande SE) - 3:18.90

2 Ak­i­na Wil­son (Cougars) - 3:22.17

3 Sh­erni­qua Williams (Cougars) - 3:23.07

Javelin

U-20

1 Aki­dah Brig­gs (To­co Ti­tans) - 38.98

2 Chev­el Mc Pher­son (Zenith) - 36.44

3 Khe­mani Roberts (Kaizen Pan­thers) - 30.25

U-18

1 Asha James (Zenith) - 42.90

2 Ky­moi No­ray (Zenith) - 35.50

Long jump

U-18

1 Anya Ak­ili (Kaizen Pan­thers) - 5.32

2 Jo­han­na Par­ris (Mem­phis) - 4.12

Dis­cus Throw

U-20

1 Chelsea James (Fal­cons) - 45.33

2 Sha­ian Charles (DPAC) - 36.47

3 Chev­el Mc Pher­son (Zenith) - 29.15

Men

100m

U-18

1 Clement Camp­bell (Mem­phis Pi­o­neers) - 10.94

2 Onil Mitchell (PFNJ) - 10.95

3 Ja­maul An­drews (Sim­plex) - 11.05

U-16

1 Avin­dale Smith (Abi­lene) -11.03

2 Tim­o­thy Fred­er­ick (PFNJ) - 11.15

3 Sha­keel John (Con­corde) - 11.31

110m Hur­dles

U-16

1 Justin Guy (Kaizen) - 15.39

2 Shaquille Ben­jamin (Kaizen) - 15.91

3 Joel An­drews (DPAC) - 16.19

U-18

1 Ako His­lop (Kaizen) - 15.35

2 Tyrese Rawl­ins (Neon Wolves) - 15.51

3 Zachary Thomp­son (Kaizen) - 16.70

U-20

1 Jude Atwell (PAP) - 14.95

2 Ker­lon Ash­by (Kaizen) 15.11

1,500m

U-20

1 Je­da Re­naud-Hinds (Cougars) - 4:19.19

2 Kris­ton Yahkarhim (Pa­lo Seco) - 4:19.20

3 Otis Bark­er (To­co Ti­tans) - 4:19.51

U-18

1 Re­car­do Prescott (Cougars) - 4:31.89

2 Thishawn Ed­mund (PFNJ) - 4:32.06

3 Ky­ron Valen­tine (Sil­ver Bul­lets) - 4:33.67

U-16 1,200m

1 Jy'Ll Roberts (Kaizen Pan­thers) - 3:30.74

2 Is­rael Scott (Cougars) - 3:34.59

3 Tichard Mc Kel­lar (EFA) -3:35.41

U-20 Long Jump

1 Che Richards (Oa­sics) - 7.42m

2 And­wuelle Wright (Re­birth) - 7.36

3 Ker­lon Ash­by (Kaizen) - 6.44

Javelin

U-16

1 Nathaniel Mathu­ra (DPAC) - 44.45

2 Justin Bideshi (ACDC) - 44.23

3 Shaquille Ben­jamin (Kaizen) - 42.17

U-18

1 Kon­nel Ja­cob (Jaguars) - 53.16

2 Selvon Rochford (Five Rivers Sec) - 52.26

3 Ka­reem Pe­ters (Zenith) - 48.81

Shot Put

U-20

1 Isa­iah Tay­lor (Abi­lene) - 15.24

2 Akeel An­toine (Neon Wolves) - 13.42

3 Nkosi James (Uwi Track & Field) - 12.81

Long Jump

U-16

1 Jonathan Thomas (Zenith) - 6.20

2 Kelsey Daniel (Kaizen) - 6.09

3 Savion Joseph (Zenith) - 6.03

U-18

1 Josi­ah Ed­wards (Abi­lene) - 6.72

2 Joel Thomas (Zenith) - 6.63

3 Di­a­mond Payne(Good­wood High) - 6.36