FORT de FRANCE – What a debut! Sada Williams won Barbados’ first gold medal at the 43rd CARIFTA Games at the Pierre Aliker Municipal Stadium.
In the process, she established a new meet record in the Under-18 Girls’ 400 metres and clocked a huge personal best of 53.39 seconds.
Akela Jones also delivered later in the evening, leaping to gold in the Under-20 girls’ long jump with 6.32 metres, bringing the medals total to two golds and one bronze.
And when coaches talk about leaving it all on the track, Williams was the perfect example. When the race was over, the new 400 metres queen collapsed on the track, briefly raised her head to acknowledge the cameras and went back down while everyone danced attendance upon her. She was eventually carted off by the emergency medical people and manager Maureen Dottin went to make sure it was not a serious injury.
