St George and St Giles reign supreme

Three spectacular record-breaking runs by victor ludorum Ethan Harte of champion boys school the Green Technologies Inc St. George Primary Lions, headlined the James Wedderburn Zone of the National Primary Schools Athletics Championship today at the National Stadium.

Those individual performances by Harte helped steer the Lions to their second consecutive boys’ title with 204 points. The City of Bridgetown St. Giles’ Conquerors tallied 164 points for a distant second while Crane Resort Hilda Skeene totaled 152 for third. Reynold Weekes raced into fourth place with 135 points and Deacons (126) were fifth.

St. Giles’ reigned as queens for the sixth consecutive year with 206 points. The race was on for second and Hilda Skeene accumulated 188 to take that honour and Reynold Weekes registered 178 for third. Grazettes’ 119 points was good enough for fourth and Hindsbury accumulated 100 points to round out the top five.

A total of ten records were broken; seven zonal and three NAPSAC, during the zone which is named after Barbados’ first Olympic medallist.

It was truly the Harte and Zachary Wall show for St. George in the Under-13 boys’ age group as they not only demolished the zonal records, but set two NAPSAC records in the 800m sprint medley and 4x100m relays.

Harte earned the title for the most outstanding male athlete by scoring 30 points by putting on a sensational sprinting exhibition. The 12-year-old ran a blistering 59.18 seconds in the 400m in his first race of the day, breaking Savion Hoyte’s old mark of 1:02.19 set in 2015.

He then sped to 12.52 seconds for a top podium finish in the 100m to obliterate Ondre Jarvis’ previous record of 13 seconds.

Later in the afternoon spectators in the Stadium were brought to their feet when Wall, running out of lane six in the second Heat, posted 25.60 seconds, shattering the NAPSAC 200m record of 25.70 previously held by West Terrace’s Jamahl Burke. That posted a challenge to Harte and he answered the call by mauling that time to finish in 25.23 seconds moments later.

Wall had the second fastest times behind Harte in all three races. He won his heat for the 100m in 12.91 seconds and he also ran 1:02.13, which also went under the 400m zonal record.

The formidable duo went on to ensure they continued their winning ways by leading the school to victory in the relays. In the 4x100m, St George’s quartet of Harte, Wall, Tamarion Lynch and Malachi Gooding posted a new record of 53.35, breaking the three-year-old record of 53.45 seconds once held by Charles F. Broome Primary.

In the 800m sprint medley, the time of 1:57.28 which was held by West Terrace in 2015 was also erased with a new time of 1:55.78 by the St. George lads.

Under-11 boys’ division star Josiah Gill with 25 points also achieved a record of 13.82 seconds to replace the old mark of 13.92 in the 100m.

Victrix ludorum and Under-13 darling Destiny Howard of Reynold Weekes accounts for 30 points. Howard with her long strides was unstoppable, winning the 200m in 28.94 seconds, the 400m (1:06.73) and the 600m in a zonal record of 1:48.97, erasing the 1:52.09 set in 2011 by Shonita Brome. Romancia Springer of Hilda Skeen (1:49.22) and Chanecia Bryan of Reynold Weekes (1:51.72) also went under the old record.

Luke McIntyre of St. Gabriel’s stamped his authority for a leading time of 2:33.32 in the boys 800m open.

Other record-breakers were Justin Parris in the Under-13 boys’ cricket ball throw with a 62.59m measurement that wiped out the 62.00m previously held by Shamer Williams of St. Giles.

Under-9 boys’ age group champions with 26 points each, Shakir Yarde of Grantley Prescod and Amir Quimby of Hilda Skeene also wrote their names in the record book. Competing in the long jump, Yarde erased the 2015 mark of 3.27m set by Jadan Bowen with a leap of 3.34m, while Quimby sped to 12.06 seconds in the 80m to dismiss the old record of 12.15 belonging to 2015 showstopper Kevin Webster.

St. Giles’, who are also the overall defending girls’ champions of NAPSAC, were once again dominant and Under-9 girls’ division champion Rejada Hinds led the way.

Hinds captured the 80m (12.19), recorded a mark of 3.13m in the long jump and finished second (23.89) in the 150m won by Jaida Scott of Hilda Skeene in 23.87.

The other stand out female athletes for St. Giles’ were Atara Bootman (14.39) in the Under-11 girls’ 100m, while Shania Mottley clocked 50.73 seconds in the 300m and Clenliece St. Clair ran the Under-13 100m in 13.40 seconds. Chloe Blackman was also victorious, throwing 8.01m in the Under-13 girls’ shot put to claim gold.

morissalindsay@barbadostoday.bb

Division Champions

Under-13 Girls – Destiny Howard
of Reynold Weekes (30 points)

Under-13 Boys – Ethan Harte
of St. George (30 points)

Under-11 Girls – Shamyra Scantlebury
of Grazettes (28 points)

Under-11 Boys – Josiah Gill
of St. Gabriel’s (25 points)

Under-9 Girls – Rejada Hinds
of St. Giles (28 points)

Under-9 Boys – Shakir Yarde
of Grantley Prescod and Amir Quimby
of Hilda Skeene (26 points each)

Under-7 Girls – Denisha Hurdle
of Reynold Weekes (26 points)

Under-7 Boys – Dalano Skeete
of St. Giles (16 points)