The Keshorn Wal­cott Gold­en League Ath­let­ics se­ries ex­plod­ed in­to ac­tion this past Sun­day at the Ed­die Hart Sa­van­nah in Tacarigua, head­lined by the sen­sa­tion­al triple-vic­to­ry per­for­mances of Eli’jah Ti­tus and Kean­na Cum­mings.

The duo set the stan­dard for the meet, prov­ing them­selves un­touch­able in their re­spec­tive dis­ci­plines and sig­nalling the rise of T&T’s next gen­er­a­tion of elite tal­ent in the com­pe­ti­tion named af­ter the na­tion’s icon­ic two-time Olympic medal­list.

Ti­tus of Dook­ie’s Ath­let­ic De­vel­op­ment was a force in the Boys Un­der-15 cat­e­go­ry, sweep­ing the heavy im­ple­ments. He claimed gold in the dis­cus throw with 24.02 me­tres, the shot put (13.30m), and the javelin throw (25.10m).

​Match­ing his dom­i­nance on the track, speed­ster Cum­mings (Pace and Per­for­mance) dom­i­nat­ed the girls’ U-15 sprints, tak­ing the top spot in the 60m dash in 8.35 sec­onds, the 200m (26.92), and the 400m (1:05.67).

Vet­er­an cam­paign­er Geral­dine George (Mas­ters Ath­let­ics) showed the young­sters how it’s done, sweep­ing the women’s dis­cus (35.21m), shot put (9.90m), and javelin (30.20m).

“So as we be­gin the sec­ond leg of the Gold­en League, in­ter­est has been good, every­body has been an­tic­i­pat­ing the com­pe­ti­tions com­ing back for a sec­ond year round,” said Wal­cott on Sun­day.

“Last year, we had an av­er­age of maybe what, 300, 350 ath­letes. This year, we had al­most 500 for the first com­pe­ti­tion So yeah, I think as you can see there’s a lot of ath­letes out here ready to run and ready to go so I think it will be a good first com­pe­ti­tion.”

Dou­ble gold for ris­ing stars

The track was scorch­ing as sev­er­al ath­letes notched two wins apiece, set­ting a high bar for the re­main­der of the Gold­en League se­ries.

In the girls’ U-17 di­vi­sion, Eden Chee Wah of Mem­phis Pi­o­neers proved she is the one to beat, win­ning both the 60m Dash (7.87) and the 200m Dash (25.36).

Sim­i­lar­ly, Josi­ah Kait­en (Mem­phis Pi­o­neers) show­cased ex­plo­sive pow­er in the boys U-15 cat­e­go­ry, se­cur­ing the 60m (7.62) and 200m (23.56) dou­ble. In the dis­tance and mid­dle-dis­tance events, Ny­la Kerr of Cougars track and field club was un­touch­able, clinch­ing gold in both the 800m (2:25.61) and the 1,600m (5:42.52) for U-17 girls.

Over on the field, Pey­ton Win­ter (Burn­ley Ath­let­ics) as­sert­ed her dom­i­nance in the girls’ U-20 throws, win­ning the dis­cus with a toss mea­sur­ing 37.02m and the shot put with 12.52m. Karis­sa Williams al­so had a stel­lar day, win­ning the U-17 girls’ dis­cus (27.80m) and javelin (22.39m).

Tyrique Vin­cent (Con­corde Ath­let­ics) proved his elite sta­tus in the boys’ U-20 field events, tak­ing gold in the javelin throw (42.50m) and a sil­ver in the shot put (13.11m) be­hind Je­lany Chinyelu of Burn­ley with 14.85m.

The meet served as a vi­tal test­ing ground for the ath­letes, many of whom are eye­ing se­lec­tion for up­com­ing re­gion­al cham­pi­onships.

​The Gold­en League con­tin­ues its cir­cuit on Jan­u­ary 18 in Shaw Park, To­ba­go, as ath­letes look to build on these open­ing-day per­for­mances.

Wal­cott shared that he was hap­py to start and is set for the the oth­er meets

“I think the next cou­ple, go­ing to To­ba­go, go­ing to Point, every­thing should run smooth­ly. Hope­ful­ly we get some new ath­letes com­ing out.”

Up­com­ing meet sched­ule

Jan­u­ary 18: Shaw Park, To­ba­go

Jan­u­ary 31: To­co Sec­ondary School Grounds

Feb­ru­ary 14: Ma­haica Sport­ing Com­plex, Point Fortin

March 14: Diego Mar­tin Sport­ing Com­plex (Fi­nale)