THE FAST LANE among the senior sprinters is already revving up with Mario Burke swiftly changing gears.
Burke and Lodge schoolgirl Akayla Morris, both products of Wilkie Cumberbatch and now with the High Performance Programme (HPP), were among the 200 metres winners when the fifth Joseph Payne Memorial Classic climaxed at the National Stadium on Saturday night.
A week after beating Levi Cadogan in the 150 metres at the second Athletics Association of Barbados Odd Distances and Field Events Development Meet, Burke won his showdown with the older and more experienced Shekeim Greaves in the 200 metres.
Greaves, a 2009 CARIFTA 100-metre Under-20 boys’ champion back in 2009, had edged Burke in the preceding 100 metres and seemed poised for the sprint double when he led coming off the bend.
He was still ahead by at least a metre with about 40 metres left, but Burke went into high gear and caught him inside the last 20 metres.
Just as Burke was seemingly about to motor past him, Greaves stalled, clutched at his knee and limped across the line in 21.85 seconds.
Burke duly overtook him and went on to win in 21.06 seconds while Sports Cave Hill Fallon Forde also passed Greaves to take second in 21.35.
Earlier, Morris (25.88) gained an early psychological advantage in her first year among the Under-15 girls, when she convincingly beat Rising Stars’ Rosette Hoyte (26.26) and St Michael’s Xhane Greenidge (26.87), shattering Timeka Jordan’s 2012 meet record of 25.97.
Freedom Strikers’ Anika Blackman (29.62) also streaked to a commanding win in the Under-11 race from Rising Stars’ Dania Haynes, who won the other heat in 30.51 seconds.
Daquan Spencer (30.23) of Wibisco Stars won the boys’ race, running slower than Blackman.
Tramaine Smith of The Lodge School had no equal in the Under-15 boys’ 200 metres, clocking a new meet record of 23.06 seconds. BC Trac’s Nathan Fergusson (24.08) was second.  Â
The St Michael School’s Leah Barker (24.75) handed Sada Williams (25.01) her first defeat in three weeks, winning the Open women’s 200 metres.
Rising Stars’ Sean Toppin won the Under-9 boys’ 80-metre in 13.58 seconds while club mate Antonia Hoyte-Small (55.33) triumphed in the Under-15 boys’ 400 metres. The men’s Open 110-metre hurdles was won by Shervid Sandiford from Michael Nicholls while Joshua Hunte, paced by Elite Distance’s coach Leo Garnes won the men’s Open 3 000 metres in 10:54.93 minutes from Pius Emilien (11:09.81) and Joseph Parris (11.10.17).
Meanwhile, Dario Grandison began his bid for selection on Barbados’ CARIFTA Games team by impressively winning the 5-K road race, which started and finished inside the National Stadium, from three-time defending champion Jerome Blackett and Oein Josiah. Mark Greenidge was fourth while Pierre Stanford and Hakeem Newton were fifth and sixth respectively. Carlie Pipe was the women’s 5-K winner.
