BRIDGETOWN – FOUR new athletes met the CARIFTA Games qualifying standard on Saturday’s opening day of the National Junior Athletics Championships at the National Stadium bringing the overall number to 20 qualifiers.
The United States-based Tai Brown put himself in contention for a place on the Barbados team for the Games in Curacao, April 15 to 17 with qualifying times of 13.68 in the preliminaries and 13.96 seconds in the final of the Under-18 Boys’ 110-metre hurdles.
The race was won Nathan Fergusson (13.61) from Tre Hollingsworth (13.85). Both had already qualified in previous meets.
The first four finishers in the Under-18 Boys’ 400 metres final, all achieved the required standard.
Race winner and last year’s CARIFTA silver medallist Antoni Hoyte-Small (47.80 seconds) of Rising Stars and second place Rasheeme Griffith (48.08) of Elite Distance Programme (EDP) had already qualified.
But they were joined by first-timers Kyle Gale (48.66) and former NAPSAC stand-out sprinter Jamahl Burke (48.80) in hitting the 48.80 qualifying benchmark.
The St Michael School’s Seth Edwards also surpassed the requirement of 48.50 metres for the Under-20 Boys’ discus with a distance of 49.76 metres. This event was won by Triston Gibbons, who qualified again with a winning distance of 50.41.
Six-footer Jaquone Hoyte brought the night’s programmme to a fitting climax when he not only reproduced his CARIFTA qualification but booked his ticket for the Pan American Junior Championships in Peru, July 21 to 23 with a personal best 10.38 seconds in winning the Open Men’s 100 metres.
Last year’s double CARIFTA gold medallist in the 800 and 1500 Jonathan Jones, who has moved up into the Under-20 division, won the 400 metres in 47.30 seconds.
The meet concludes on Sunday night with the staging of the 200, 800 and 400-metre hurdles. (EZS)