SEVEN PRIME MINISTERS. Three Grammy awards. One Olympic medal and a World title.
A lot has happened in Barbados over the last three decades. Adams losing St Leonard’s sports just isn’t one of them.
Richmond’s finest extended an already historic streak into the realm of unbelievable yesterday, as the defending inter-house champs capped off another impressive showing at the National Stadium with an unprecedented 31st successive school title.
About the only thing Bajan that has stood longer is Parliament, with Adams (Yellow) last losing a house sports during Tom Adams’ administration – well before the birth of Rihanna and Ryan Brathwaite.
What was well conceived though was Adams’ margin of victory, which stood at more than 300 points for the second successive year.
Yellow racked up 565.5 points to second-placed Worrell’s (Red) 257.5.
Hackett (Green) finished third with 250.5 points, followed by King (Orange) 249.5, Springer (Blue) 243 and Carver (Purple) 229.
So dominant was Adams’ performance that they also took three of the five division titles, led by Under-17 champion Akeim David, who finished with 46 points and a record in the 100-metre hurdles.
Posting a time of 14.18 seconds, David replaced the 14.54 clocking set by multiple CARIFTA medallist Greggmar Swift five seasons ago.
It was just one of 11 records to fall on the day, two of which came at the hands of Springer’s CARIFTA thrower Tristan Whitehall, who set new marks in the Under-20 javelin (47.03 metres) and shot put (14.29).
He didn’t stand as the day’s only two-time record breaker though, as King’s Reco Griffith was also responsible for setting new marks in the Under-14 100 (12.75) and 200 (26.49).
They served as part of Griffith’s sprint treble after he completed victory in the 400 metres for a division-best 30 points.
As for the meet’s best, that belonged to someone else. Kion Joseph added the victor ludorum crown to his Under-20 title, having tallied 64 points following gold medal runs in the 400, 1 500 and a record in the 400-metre hurdles (58.97).
The Under-20 champ added silver medals in the 200 and 5 000 metres and 110-metre hurdles while copping a bronze in the 100 metres and a fourth-place finish in the competitive high jump.
That event was eventually won by pre-event favourite and CARIFTA athlete Klode Thompson, who unfortunately missed out on replacing his old mark by jumping 1.90 metres.
Leaving Pablo Kinch and Mario Phillips back at the 1.80 mark, Thompson failed to clear 1.95 in the three legal attempts before passing the bar one try later when the competition was over.
Rashad Phillips and Rashon Crichlow rounded out Adams’ division champs on the day, posting 41 and 34 points in the Under-15 and Under-13 divisions, respectively.
