Cheyanne Cummins proved she can blow away the competition – with or without a tropical storm.
Christ Church Girls’ own little gale force wreaked havoc on the Garfield Sobers Sports Complex course again, successfully defending her cross country title during yesterday’s Inspire Sports Trevor Straughn Memorial Championship.
The first-place finish confirmed Cummins’ status as one of the elite distance runners in primary school sports after last year’s race was marred by the effects of Tomas.
But the only sign of an impending system was the breeze it took for her to storm to the front of the 200-member field less than 100 metres into the race.
“I just wanted to get out of the blocks fast and then pace myself before I got to the top of the hill to sprint and come down,” explained an elated Cummins.
“It was a bit slippery and wet going up though, so I did have some difficulty because I was sliding out.”
Hill Top’s Kendi Boyce made the race fairly eventful by closing within five metres on the steep downhill finish, but the gap was still too much to make up on the home-stretch.
Cummins crossed the line in six minutes flat – bettering last year’s victorious time by 50 seconds – while Bynoe came in five seconds later. Cummins’ schoolmate Charissa Moore (6:11), who was second last year as part of Christ Church’s one-two-three sweep, ended third this time around to give the school three finishers in the top ten.
But Christ Church weren’t assured of a second successive team title though, with Hill Top also benefiting from three top finishers, which included the 11th placed Class 1 student Daesha Scantlebury (7:07). Up to Press time, no official announcement was made of the girls’ winners.
That wasn’t the case with the boys’ category as Milton Lynch were clear repeat champions when all five of their boys crossed the line among the top 15 finishers.
However, none were as good as Kemshon Wilkinson, who overcame a late challenge before grabbing individual glory for Hilda Skeene in a winning time of 5:43.
This was after he had to battle back following a blistering start from a St Giles athlete in the early exchanges of the race. But Wilkinson took down the initial pace-setter 400 metres into the event, leading a main group of five boys up the challenging incline.
The real test came on the run for home, as Wilkinson and Sharon Primary’s Luke Hinkson went stride for stride while coming down the hill in the final 50 metres. But Hinkson stumbled to the ground just ten metres shy of the line to end the threat, allowing for an easy Wilkinson victory and for Wesbury’s Pallu Arthur (5:49) to pass him for second.
Hinkson (5:50) finished third before Kemar Gaskin (5:56) and Zavier Parris (5:58) came home fourth and fifth respectively to lead a flurry of Milton Lynch boys across the line.
“I just told the boys to get out of the pack and get to the front as fast as possible,” said Milton Lynch’s physical education teacher Dale Brathwaite.
“We’ve been training from early this year and they were being timed then according to the time they won with last year.”
