Shanice Hutson blessed Barbados with an early Easter Sunday gold medal on a bittersweet second day of the Flow CARIFTA Games at the Thomas Robinson Stadium.
With Barbadians still saddened and shocked by the disqualification of Saturday’s record-breaking gold medallist Kyle Gale for a lane infringement, Hutson hurled the discus 41.56 metres to win the Under-17 Girls’ event.
The 15-year-old Coleridge & Parry schoolgirl struck gold with her first throw of 41.56 metres.
The other Barbadian in the event, Rowland Kirton-Browne, whose pet event is the javelin, was fourth with a best effort of 32.84 metres. Jamaican Cheyanne Fearon (34.57) and Treneese Hamilton (33.58) got silver and bronze, respectively.
“I feel really great because after the shot put, I knew I had to bounce back,” said Hutson, who had come up short with just 12.88 metres for fourth position in Saturday’s shot put event.
“The game plan was to relax, blast from first throw and I knew I would be good throughout the competition,” she said.
Having thrown 42.50 metres at the National Junior Championships and 42.10 at the Louis Lynch Championships, Hutson said she was targeting the CARIFTA record distance of 43.99 metres.
“Unfortunately, I did not get it, but I am thankful and would like to dedicate this medal to God, most of all my coach [Ramon Armstrong], my mother [Shelly Yearwood], my family and everybody that had my back from Day 1, I want to say thank you,” said Hutson, who hails from Rose Hill, St Peter.
Gale, who had won the Under-17 Boys’ 400 metres in a new record time of 47.07 seconds, was penalised by the Jury of Appeal under rule 163 (3a) which states: “In all races run in lanes, each athlete shall keep within his allocated lane from start to finish. This shall apply to any portion of a race run in lanes.”
Video replays of the race seemed to show that Gale, who was running in lane five, stepped on the inside line on the curve a couple of times, coming off the curve while entering the home straight.
Trinidadian Avindale Smith, who had finished second in 47.75 seconds was promoted to the gold medal position.
In the Under-20 Boys’ 400 metres hurdles semi-final heats, there was a scare for Barbados when Under-18 gold medallist for the past two years Rasheeme Griffith fell as he attempted to clear the first hurdle.
But he got back up quickly and continued running and clearing the remaining hurdles. Such was his determination that he overtook two competitors and finished second in 55.90 seconds, behind Jamaican Rovane Williams in 51.23 seconds.
In the preceding heat, Nathan Fergusson advanced to the final when he finished second in 53.15 seconds to Jamaican Malik James-King (50.91).
Defending champion Jonathan Jones and Tafari Bishop advanced to today’s final in the Under-20 Boys’ 800 metres.
Both were second in their semi-final heats, with Jones clocking 1:53.95 minutes behind Turks and Caicos’ Ken Reges (1:53.33), while Bishop, making his debut, clocked 1:53.22 as Jamaican Kemar Farquharson (1:52.86) overtook him over the last 40 metres. (EZS)
