The city of Bridgetown St. Giles Primary are queens for the second consecutive year while Bayley’s Primary after a two-year hiatus returned to rule as kings when the 2019 National Primary Schools Athletics Championship concluded today at the Usain Bolt Sports Complex.
Bayley’s Primary returned to winning ways when they captured the overall NAPSAC boys’ title.
The athletes of Bayley’s Primary were outstanding to lift the boys’ title with 124 points and finished second overall in the girls on 135 points. They dedicated their performances to their long-standing teacher, coach and mentor Winfield Forde who will be retiring in July this year.
The last time the boys of Bayley’s Primary celebrated as champions was in 2017, but this year they returned with a vengeance, beating out All Saints Primary who ended on 95 points in the second position and St. George Primary on 83 who were third.
Last year’s boys’ champions St. Alban’s Primary came fourth on 71 points and West Terrace Primary on a total of 69 points rounded out the top five places.
Absolutely no surprise that the girls from the Ivy, St. Michael once again conquered the James Wedderburn Zone and went on today to capture the overall girls’ title with 135 points.
Bayley’s Primary (84 points) did well to edge out third place Charles F. Broome Primary on 64 points. Wesley Hall Primary and St. Lucy Primary were tied on 54 points for fourth in the standings while St. Stephen’s Primary, one point behind on 53 were sixth.
Nine-year-old Zachary Wall of St. George Primary was victor ludorum accounting for 28 points in the Under-11 Boys Division.
Wall delivered a record-breaking performance of 43.34 seconds to eclipse his former time of 44.12 seconds in the 300m final.
Three other young men clocked under the Under-11 Boys 300m record time and they were Aidan Moore of St. Cyprian’s Boys in 43.90 seconds, Jaquan Blackman- Gittens of Reynold Weekes Primary in 43.97 seconds and Nathan Cumberbatch of St. Giles’ Primary with 44.01 seconds.
Wall also equalled the 200m record of 26.81 seconds set in 2011 by Raheem Taitt-Best of St. Martin’s Mangrove Primary. He also claimed silver in the 100m in 13.23 seconds which was won in 13.18 seconds by Jaquan Blackman-Gittens of Reynold Weekes Primary.
Not yet finished, Wall returned to anchor St. George Primary to victory in the Under-11s 4x100m relay ran in 56.22 seconds.
There was a three-way tie for victrix ludorum among Under-13 Division champion Tia Applewhaite, Under-11 star Kenisha Straughn of St. Stephen’s Primary and Under-nine winner Aaliyah Goodridge of Wesley Hall Primary, all scoring 30 points each.
Tia Applewhaite won gold in the Under-13 Girls 100m in 12.94 seconds ahead of her twin Tania in 12.99 seconds for the silver. Aniya Nurse of Hillaby Turners Hall Primary (13.20 seconds) took bronze.
Tia again snatched a top podium finish, this time in the 200m, bolting 26.82 seconds ahead of Kadia Rock of St. Stephen’s Primary [26.82] for second and Aniya Nurse of Hillaby Turners [27.23] was third.
Tia was also victorious in the long jump with a 4.67m measurement.
Joint victrix ludorum and Under-11 Girls champion, Kenisha Straughn of St. Stephen’s Primary took center stage in the 100m, 200m, and 300m races. In the 100m Straughn ran 14.15 seconds, in the 200m she clocked 28.93 seconds and registered another winning time of 46.88 seconds in the 300m.
Meanwhile, the baby among the joint victrices ludorum, Aaliyah Goodridge of Wesley Hall Primary, was unstoppable. She first won the Under-nine Girls 80m in 12.35 seconds, the 100m in 15.25 seconds and the 150m in 23.39 seconds.
Bragging rights for the fastest Primary School boy in Barbados went to Under-13 Boys Division champion R’Jai Gittens of Reynold Weekes Primary with a total of 23 points.
Gittens stamped his authority in 13.39 seconds to claim the 100m, was second in the 200m in 27.00 seconds behind the 26.70 seconds ran by the sensational Jamarion Mapp of Elliott Belgrave Primary.
Earlier in the day, Mapp sprinted under a minute when he clocked 59.76 seconds to dominate his pet race which was the Under-13 Boys 400m. He initially got off to a nervous start when he false-started and received a caution.
Once again Elliott Belgrave was on show when Mapp came from behind to anchor his team to victory in 1:56.88 in the boys 800m sprint medley relay.
The opening race on the track this morning was a record-breaking performance by Ashlyn Simmons of Eden Lodge Primary. In her final year competing at NAPSAC, she clocked 1:40.75 to replace her former time of 1:41.08 set at this year’s NAPSAC quarterfinal.
The impressive 11-year-old then returned to command the Under-13 Girls 400m field in 1:00.83. Aniya Nurse of Hillaby Turners Hall Primary was close behind her in a time of 1:01.98 and a time of 1:02.01 got Kadia Rock of St. Stephen’s Primary the third position.
With 25 points, Shai Thorne was among those that stood out in the boys for Bayley’s Primary. Thorne slammed the field to win the Under-nine Boys 150m in 22.12 seconds. He was second in the long jump with a 3.54m measurement, behind the 3.60m jump executed by fellow Bayley’s schoolmate Shakobi Gittens.
In the Under-seven age group, Kaiya Warner-Franklin of Charles F. Broome Primary topped the girls with 20 points and Shaquon Brathwaite of All Saints Primary was the best among the boys with 12 points.
Warner-Franklin raced to the finish line in 8.84 seconds in the 50m dash and leaped 1.54m in the standing broad jump.
Meanwhile, Brathwaite came second in the tennis ball throw [26.10m] which was won by Dimitri Hippolyte of St. Alban’s Primary.
Two records fell in the relays when the girls of St. Giles ran 1:58.46 in the 800m sprint medley to replace the 2:00.04 belonging to Eden Lodge Primary. St. Giles also won the Under-13 Girls 4x100m relay.
The Under-nine Boys 4x100m relay record now belongs to Bayley’s with a time of 1:00.02. They dismissed the old record of 1:01.32 set in 2015 by St. Alban’s Primary.
The Under-13 Boys 4x100m was captured by All Saint’s Primary in 54.87 seconds anchored by Amari Browne who won the boys 800m open in 2:30.75.
Also picking up wins in the relays were A Da Costa Edwards Primary [58.56] for the Under-11 Girls 4x100m while St. Lucy Primary had something to cheer about with gold in the Under-nine girls 4x100m. Please also see Pages 38, 39, 40 & 41.
