ST GEORGE’S, Grenada, Sporting Alert – Caribbean powerhouses Jamaica did a clean sweep of the 4x400m relays en route to dominating yet another Carifta Games, following Monday’s third and final day of competition.
The Jamaicans closed the final day of competition at the 45th staging of the Carifta Games at the Grenada Athletic Stadium in St George’s, with 86 medals, which equalled last year’s record tally.
The defending champions collected 42 gold, 28 silver and 16 bronze medals at this year’s championships, which saw several Games’ records going down.
As they did in the 4x100m relays, Jamaica once again proved that they have the best juniors in the region after sweeping the mile relays as well.
The outstanding quarter-milers Akeem Bloomfield and Christopher Taylor both captured three gold medals at the meeting after helping their respective age groups win 4x400m titles.
Taylor used his familiar conserved relay running tactics to anchor Jamaica to gold in the Boys’ Under-18 race with a time of 3:12.54.
Bloomfield grabbed a gold medal in the three-day meeting when he led the Jamaicans to the Under-20 crown in 3:10.55.
Jamaica also won the U18 girls race in 3:39.31 and U20 category in 3:34.84.
Jamaicans also did a clean sweep of the sprint hurdles gold medals, with Rushelle Burton, Dasazay Freeman, Damion Thomas and Rohan Cole taking the top podium places.
MORE IN THE SPRINTS
Meanwhile, the prominent young sprinter Sada Williams of Barbados completed a well deserved 400/200 double after running a wind-aided 22.72 seconds (+2.7 m/s) to land the half-lap title on Monday.
Trinidad and Tobago’s Akanni Hislop posted a wind-assisted 20.89 secs (+4.5 m/s) to capture the U20 boys’ honour, with defending champion Mario Burke of Barbados finishing outside of the medal places in fourth with 21.14.
Michael Stephens of Jamaica won the U18 boys’ race in 21.43 and the U18 girls’ crown went to Shaniel English of Jamaica in 23.65, edging teammate Britany Anderson (23.74).
Jamaicans also produced in the 800m, winning three of the four gold medals on offer, with only Barbadian Jonathon Jones, who clocked a stunning personal best and Carifta Games record of 1:49.85 to win the Under-18 boys’ gold medal not associated with the defending champions’ setup.
Elsewhere, Warren Barrett Jr set a new record and personal best in the boys’ Under-20 shot put when throwing 19.47m to shatter the five-year-old mark of 19.47m, set in 2011.
Another Jamaican, Phillipe Barnett, threw 60.44m in the second round, his own legal mark of the competition, to bagged the U18 boys’ Discus Throw title.
His teammate, Roje Stona (55.30m) also went further than the previous mark of 54.41m by Vashon Mc Carty of Jamaica in 2014.
Candesha Scott of Grenada established a new Carifta Games record of 51.13m when winning the girls’ Javelin Throw for Under-20 — breaking the old mark of 49.72m, set last year by Isheeka Binns of Jamaica.
In the medal count, Bahamas finished second in the standings with six gold, 15 silver and 13 bronze, Barbados came next with six gold, six silver and eight bronze while the hosts Grenada finished with three gold, four silver and six bronze and Trinidad and Tobago rounding out the top five with three gold, two silver and nine bronze.
