Trinidad and Tobago’s boys’ under-20 4x100 metres team stunned the defending champions Jamaica and the entire Kirani James Athletics Stadium, Grenada on Sunday night, winning the event in 40.45 seconds on day two of 51st edition of the Carifta Games.
The T&T quartet of Che Wickham, Mikhail Byer, Hakeem Chinapoo, and Dylan Woodruffe combined well to secure the gold medal for the first time in 19 years. Two years of the competition (2020 and 2021) were lost due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ironically, the last time T&T won this event was back in 2005 when Tobago staged the Games after the effects of the passage of hurricane Ivan the year before rendered Grenada unable to host.
That year, Marcus Duncan, Keston Bledman, Rocky Caruth, and Jamil James copped gold in 41.05 seconds. Martinique was second in 41.21 seconds with the Bahamas third in 41.50 seconds.
“I think it was just a smooth race. It was the best race I found. This time we were the winning team and hopefully in the years to come we will always be the winning team,” said Woodruffe after the victory. “We came in as the underdogs and we showed what the underdogs can do.”
T&T’s win also broke Jamaica’s monopoly on the event ending an 11-year stretch in which the Jamaicans won the event nine times. Bahamas was the last team other than Jamaica to win the event, clocking 40.42 seconds in 2012.
Overall, T&T raked in eight medals (1 gold, 2 silver, and 5 bronze) on day two of the 2024 programme to bring its team tally to 15 and fifth on the table in which 17 countries have medals. Jamaica leads with 49 medals (24 gold, 15 silver, and 10 bronze, with the Bahamas second with 25 (7 gold, 9 silver, and 9 bronze) and Guyana third with 5 (4 gold and 1 bronze).
Twin sisters Sanaa and Sole Frederick, the surviving members from last year’s silver medal-winning relay team in the girls’ under-20 4x100 metre relay team, repeated with another silver medal performance. Led off by Symphony Patrick and anchored by Alexxe Henry T&T clocked 44.43 seconds to take second place behind Jamaica who won in 43.63 seconds.
Silver medallist in the boys’ under-17 100m individual sprint from Saturday, Chinapoo also picked up his second medal of these Games, running the second leg of another silver medal run in the under-17 4 x 100m relay team.
With Cameron Nathaniel-Powell on the lead-off leg, T&T took control of the race, Chinapoo handed over to Shane Camejo on the third leg and Kaeden Herbert anchored T&T home to a 41.53 seconds clocking. Jamaica won the race in 41.30 seconds with the Bahamas third in 42.30 seconds.
T&T’s girl’s under-17 4x100m relay quartet picked up one more bronze medal. Jenniah McLaren, Ziah Tobias, Makayla Cupid, and Tianna Richardson clocked 47.49 seconds, finishing behind the Jamaicans in 45.36 seconds and the Bahamas in second in 46.28 seconds.
Multi-discipline athlete Tyrique Vincent is T&T’s first double-medallist at the Games, following up Saturday’s long jump silver with high jump bronze in the boys’ under-17 division.
Vincent, who placed 8th in the high jump in 2023 in Nassau, Bahamas with the best height of 1.70 metres, improved tremendously this year with the best attempt recorded at 1.90 metres. He needed just two attempts to navigate the height which in the end separated him from 4th placed Jamaican, Patrick Brown who cleared the same height but needed three tries to do so. Both young men then had three failed attempts at 1.95 meters.
Jenna-Marie Thomas reeled in T&T’s first medal on day two when she landed the bronze in the girls’ under-17 400m hurdles event.
Thomas, 16, clocked 1:01.03 seconds for her trip around, pipped for silver by Bahamas’ Darvinique Dean who clocked 1:00.66, with Jamaica’s Nastassia Fletcher claiming the gold medal in 1:00.10 seconds.
“It was a good run, I would say that I executed a very good race and I gave it my all that I had today. It feels great to represent Trinidad and Tobago at this level and I am just extremely grateful,” said Thomas.
Durlaina Rouse, also of Team T&T finished in 5th position in 1:07.73 seconds.
The feat was duplicated in the boys’ under-20 division when Dorian Charles also clinched bronze. Charles clocked 52.70 seconds and finished strongly behind the Jamaican duo of Shamer Blake who won gold in 51.21 seconds and Princewell Martin who claimed silver in 51.34 seconds.
After the race, Charles said, “I didn’t execute the race how I was supposed to but my coach said finish strong and everything would be fine. I feel good. This is my first medal in the 400 hurdles so I feel good about it.”
Charles, a scholarship athlete at Jamaica College in Kingston, Jamaica added that he knew it would be a challenging race against two familiar athletes Blake who represents St Elizabeth’s in Jamaica schools’ competition, and Martin who is his teammate at Jamaica College.
T&T’s 4th medal of the day came in the boys’ under-17 3,000 metres race when Isaiah Alder grabbed bronze. Alder, 16, came home in 9:29.35 seconds, 8.05 seconds slower than Aruba’s Wyndel Beyde who clocked 9:21.30. The gold medal was won by Demetrie Meyers from Belize in 9:05.86 seconds.
T&T will also have representation in the girls’ and boys’ 800m under-17 finals during Monday's programme.
Bronze medallist in the girls’ 1500m on Saturday, Shian Lewis returned in the 800m prelims on Sunday, placing second in 2 minutes, 21.16 seconds in heat one. The heat winner was Jamaica’s Kevongaye Fowler in 2:17.04 and third was Bahamas’ Jade Knowles in 2:22.21. That final takes place at 4:45 pm on Monday.
Sprinter Chinapoo is also on course to pick up his second medal after he qualified for Monday’s boys’ under-17 200m final which will come off at 5:55 pm.
Chinapoo was the winner in heat one in a time of 21.68 seconds, grabbing one of two automatic spots in the final ahead of Jamaica’s Ohsane Jervis in 21.78 seconds. Third place finisher in that race, Zion Sambo from Curacao claimed a non-automatic qualifier in 22.13.
In the under-20 girls’ division, twin sisters Sanaa and Sole Frederick could achieve a unique feat in Monday’s final at 6:05 pm if they can both get on the podium. Sanaa, the defending champion in the event, clocked 23.66 seconds in semi-final the first heat, securing one of two automatic spots in Monday’s final. A few minutes later, Sole won her heat with a time of 23.16 seconds.
Previous leader in the girl’s open heptathlon, Gianna Paul was unable to participate in the remaining three disciplines yesterday, after sustaining a leg strain late on Saturday afternoon. With a 173-point lead in the heptathlon going into the 200m, Paul pulled up with about 60 metres to go. The injury left her unable to report for yesterday’s three events, the long jump, the javelin, and the 800 metres contest.
The team manager Jehue Gordon told Guardian Media Sport that despite the decision to withdraw the talented athlete from the remainder of the games in consideration for her long-term athlete development, she remains upbeat.
“We’ve decided not to risk her since her long-term development is more important than a medal at the Carifta Games,” he said.
“We will also make sure that she is supported mentally but she is in a good space given the outstanding performance that she had on day one.”
Paul’s teammate, Kaori Robley placed fourth in the long jump (4.99 metres), seventh in the javelin (16.04 metres), and third in the 800m, finishing fourth overall with 3,889 points.
Jamaica’s Kimeka Smith won the event with 4,699 points, Clementine Carias of Guadeloupe was second with (4,699) and Aaliyah Evans of the Bahamas ended third with 4,181 points.
In the boys’ open octathlon, T&T’s Darius Moore and Jeremiah Francis continued to languish. Moore clocked 17.18 seconds in the 110m hurdles placing 4th in section 1 and 10th overall. Francis was disqualified from his race in section two after tripping on the final hurdle and committing a lane infringement.
Later, Moore cleared 1.73 metres in the high jump, their event’s next discipline, and Francis cleared 1.65m.
In the penultimate discipline, the javelin throw, France pulled in major points placing second with a heave of 48.88 metres while Moore’s 35.28m placed him 12th in the event.
When the pair returned for the event’s final discipline, the 1,500 metre, Francis placed 6th in 5:04.19 to finish 14th overall with 4,300 points. Moore placed 15th in the 1,500m and 15th overall with 4,009 points.
