By Anmar Goodridge-Boyce
Close, but no cigar.
Barbadian Asabi Callender narrowly missed out on a bronze medal in the morning session of day two at the 50th edition of the CARIFTA Games in Nassau, Bahamas with a fourth-place finish in the Under-20 girls javelin event.
The 18-year-old Callender, who is also a West Indies Under-19 cricketer, registered a best mark of 41.81 metres just behind hometown girl Vanessa Sawyer (43.37) at the Thomas A Robinson Stadium.
Guyanese defending champion Anisha Gibbons once again retained her title with a winning throw of 47.96 metres. French Guiana’s Korann Colet took silver with 45.32 metres.
Brieanna Boyce advanced to the final of the Under-20 girls 400-metre after finishing fourth in heat one in 1:05.25 minutes.
Favian Gollop also progressed to the next round of the Under-20 boys’ 800-metre clocking 1:56.40 minutes to claim the third spot in heat two.
Kadia Rock (25.03) and Aniya Nurse (24.65) are safely through to the semi-finals of the Under-17 girls 200-metres as both girls were runners-up in heat one and three respectively in the preliminaries.
Aragon Straker (22.06) and Amani Mascoll-Beckles (21.67) also negotiated the first round of the Under-20 boys 200-metres and will advance to the semi-final.
Barbadian CARIFTA champions Layla Haynes and Ashlyn Simmons were slated to contest the first-round of the 800 metres but the events will now be straight finals tomorrow.
