CLAY­TON CLARKE

Sport Cor­re­spon­dent

The in­au­gur­al Gold­en League ath­let­ics se­ries came to an end on March 9 at the Diego Mar­tin Sport­ing Com­plex with the grand fi­nal.

The se­ries kicked on De­cem­ber 7 at the Ed­die Hart Ground in Tacarigua and con­tin­ued on Jan­u­ary 11 at Ma­haica Sports Com­plex in Point Fortin, Jan­u­ary 26 (Shaw Park Ground, Scar­bor­ough), Feb­ru­ary 15 (To­co Sec­ondary School Ground, To­ba­go) and Feb­ru­ary 22 (Diego Mar­tin Sport­ing Com­plex).

The top eight ath­letes in each event were then in­vit­ed for the fi­nale on March 9.

The League was the brain­child of T&T’s 2012 Olympics men’s javelin cham­pi­on Keshorn Wal­cott. With the clo­sure of the six sta­dia in the coun­try for re­pair work, lo­cal ath­letes wel­comed the Gold­en League Se­ries held on grass. Wal­cott said see­ing them in ac­tion was the high­light for him.

“The turnout of the ath­letes, not just com­ing and see­ing it as a grass meet but they came out and they com­pet­ed and they have been com­pet­ing well through­out from To­ba­go to Point Fortin to To­co putting their best foot for­ward,” said the 2012 World Ju­nior cham­pi­on.

Wal­cott told Guardian Me­dia Sports that he was par­tic­u­lar­ly elat­ed when the ath­letes were in his home town of To­co.

“It brings me a lot of joy ac­tu­al­ly be­cause as a ju­nior ath­lete, I would of liked to par­tic­i­pate in com­pe­ti­tions like this. Even go­ing to To­co to com­pete for the first time the ath­letes were hap­py. Per­sons went to To­co for the first time and that was ac­tu­al­ly a re­al­ly good ex­pe­ri­ence. We want to bring more events like this.”

The two-time (2010/2012) Cen­tral Amer­i­can and Caribbean (CAC) ju­nior boys’ Un­der-20 javelin gold medal­list is look­ing ahead to the 2025 edi­tion of the league.

“We have lots of ideas but we need a lit­tle more help. Hope­ful­ly from this year to next and be­yond every­thing can grow and get bet­ter. I want to thank all the spon­sors, Min­istry of Sport and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment, Re­boot, First Cit­i­zens, BMo­bile, Trinidad Rope Works Lim­it­ed, TTOC (T&T Olympic Com­mit­tee), NAAATT (Na­tion­al As­so­ci­a­tion of Ath­let­ics Ad­min­is­tra­tions of T&T), Jav­cott and KW Re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion Cen­tre). I want to al­so thank every­one who came and gave us a hand. We thank the ath­letes and we thank the coach­es first of all for tak­ing part and mak­ing it a suc­cess.”

Shi­an Lewis was one of the stars of the Gold­en League se­ries. At the March 9 fi­nals, Lewis cap­tured the girls’s Un­der-17 400m and 800m events. The 2024 Carif­ta bronze medal­list al­so se­cured the women’s 1,500m ti­tle. The One-A-Week club mem­ber at­tained the qual­i­fy­ing stan­dards in the girls’ U-17 800m and 1,500m at the Carif­ta Tri­als at the Man­ny Ramjohn Sta­di­um, Mara­bel­la on the week­end (April 5-6). Lewis then left for Bar­ba­dos to rep­re­sent T&T at the Jean Pierre Caribbean Youth Net­ball Cham­pi­onships.

Gold­en League Ath­let­ics Grass Se­ries Cham­pi­ons

U-11

Girls

100m: Chelsea Fran­cois (ZC Ath­let­ics)

200m: Fran­cois

Boys

100m: Zion Phillips (Cougars)

200m: Za­mael Woodruffe (Burn­ley)

Mixed 4x100m: Cougars

U-13

Girls

100m: Nao­mi Phillip (Cougars)

200m: Phillip

Boys

100m: Nathan La Fou­cade (Cougars)

200m: La Fou­cade

Mixed 4x100m: Cougars

U-15

Girls

100m: Kean­na Cum­mings (One-A-Week)

200m: Ny­la Kerr (Cougars)

400m: Kerr

4x100m: BATCE

Boys

100m: Jonathan Hug­gins (FAD)

200m: Kaden Adams (Burn­ley)

400m: Adams

Mixed 4x100m: One-A-Week

U-17

Girls

100m: Za­da Charles (Pt. Fortin New Jets)

200m: Charles

400m: Shi­an Lewis (One-A-Week)

800m: Lewis

Shot put: Kay­la Fitz­patrick (Mem­phis Pi­o­neers)

Dis­cus: Akeya Gon­za­les (D’Abadie Pro­gres­sive)

Javelin: Gon­za­les

4x100m: Cougars

Boys

100m: Alex Seep­er­sad (Phoenix)

200m: Seep­er­sad

400m: Omari Brown (Neon Wolves)

800m: Christo­pher Sam­my (One-A-Week)

1,500m: Sam­my

Shot put: Mar­cion Davis (Adren­a­line)

Dis­cus: Nykel Gomez (As­cend)

Javelin: Tan­non Ne­mey­er (As­cend)

4x100m: One-A-Week

Mixed 4x100m: Cougars

U-20

Girls

100m: Noe­mi Theodore (Phoenix)

200m: Theodore

400m: Di­a­mond Paul (Pt Fortin New Jets)

800m: Aniqah Bai­ley (One-A-Week)

Javelin: Abi­ah Halls (As­cend)

Shot put: Pey­ton Win­ter (Burn­ley)

4x100m: Point Fortin New Jets

Dis­cus: Ruth Irvine (Zenith)

Boys

100m: Za­c­cheus Charles (Pt. Fortin New Jets)

200m: Da Shaun Leza­ma (One-A-Week)

400m: Leza­ma

800m: Omare Thomp­son (One-A-Week)

1,500m: Thomp­son

Shot put: Je­lany Chinyelu (Burn­ley)

Dis­cus: Jay­den Nedd (As­cend)

Javelin: Dar­ius Sawyer (Dook­ies)

4x100m: Point Fortin New Jets

Open

Women

100m: Shi­an Lewis (One-A-Week)

Shot put: Geral­dine George (TT Mas­ters)

Dis­cus: George

Javelin: Gwen­dolyn Smith (TT Mas­ters)

Men

100m: Je­re­my Charles (Point Fortin New Jets)

200m: Kyrell Thomas (Cougars)

400m: Thomas

800m: Da­ninel Gibbs (Con­corde)

1,500m: Gibbs

Shot put: Hezekiel Romeo (As­cend)

Dis­cus: Umar Sandy (UTT Pa­tri­ots)

Javelin: Cameron Seaton (UTT Pa­tri­ots)

4x100m: Poimt Fortin New Jets