Four more Barbadian athletes defied the odds yesterday to qualify for the 2013 CARIFTA Games after surpassing the required standards during the Trinidad and Tobago CARIFTA Trials at the Hasely Crawford Stadium.
Rivaldo Leacock won the Under-17 Boys’ 400 metres hurdles in a personal best 54.38 seconds, well within the required 55.50 and about four seconds ahead of the nearest Trinidadian competitor.
Kion Joseph opened his season’s performance in the Under-20 Boys’ event with 51.82 seconds, almost two full seconds within the 53.70 being asked by the selectors. He also qualified for Pan Am Juniors.
Coming up short in the hurdles despite winning their finals, were Allana Ince with 43.97 in the Under-17 Girls’ 300-metres event and Tia-Adana Belle with 63.97 in the Under-20 Girls’ race. Danielle Scantlebury, also short, was third in 44.99 (300mh).
Jerrad Mason clocked 1 minute 53.97 seconds, just within the 1:54 to win the “B” final for non-Trinidadians and place second overall among the Under-20 Boys in the 800 metres. Mark London was tops among the Trinidadians with 1:53.03.
Akeem Marshall still needs to drop another four seconds after clocking 2:00.37 to win the Under-17 Boys’ final, and Jade Searles is also ten seconds off, taking the win among the Under-17 Girls in 2:26.13, just edging Trinidad’s Lateifa Sylvester (2:26.19).
The final qualifier, joining Mario Burke (100 metres) and Tristan Evelyn (100 metres hurdles) from Saturday’s competition, is Under-20 sprinter Levi Cadogan, who clocked a personal best 21.21 to qualify for both CARIFTA and Pan Am Juniors in the 200 metres.
However, the wind wreaked havoc on the attempts by others.
The finalists in the 100 metres were hard-hit late Saturday when Evelyn’s 11.68 and Timeka Jordan’s 12.19 were backed by a 4.5 wind. Burke (10.47), Jebarrie Cumberbatch (10.93), Tamal Atwell (10.98) all had a 3.5 wind behind them.
Yesterday in the 200 metres, Burke clocked 21.08, Ramarco Thompson 22.23, Cumberbatch 22.36 and Atwell 22.61 in the finals, but again it was wind-aided (2.2 metres per second).
Shae Nurse did 23.52 and Tre Adams 22.49 in the heats while Akeem McCollin did 22.66. He also did a personal best 48.92 in the 400 on Saturday. Ariel Jackson’s 24.27 had a strong headwind of 3.1m/s.
Evelyn and Jordan both had a legal wind when they ran, 24.83 and 25.57, respectively.
Daley Carter was second overall in the heptathlon with 4 176 points, but clearly can improve if he works on the long jump, javelin, discus and the 1 500.
Despite a personal best 7.19 metres to win the Under-20 Boys’ long jump, Shamar Rock was still 11 centimetres off the qualifying standard.
Charles Greaves’ best leap was 6.63m for second place and Jalisa Burrowes was five centimetres short with her winning leap of 5.50m in the Under-17 Girls’ event.
Brandon Hope cleared 1.85 metres and Hakeem Clarke 1.75 metres in the Under-17 Boys’ high jump, both requiring at least 1.90 metres.
Antonio Weekes did 12.62 metres in the Under-17 Boys’ triple jump, off the 14 metres, and Romario Antoine’s 14.46 in the Under-20 Boys’ shot put also fell short of the 15-metre standard.