by Anmar Goodridge-Boyce
Barbados ended the 50th edition of the CARIFTA track and field games in Nassau, Bahamas, with a tally of 10 medals as the Under-17 girls 4×400-metre relay team produced an impressive performance on another night of silver lining for the 23-member team at the Thomas A Robinson Stadium.
The quartet of Kadia Rock, Ariel Archer, Chanecia Bryan and Aniya Nurse dug deep with a valiant display of quarter-mile running to win one of five silver medals for Barbados in the final session of the region’s most prestigious athletics showpiece event.
Rock completed a sublime first leg to hand the baton to Archer in the lead who fought hard but was unable to stave off the Jamaicans on the second leg.
Nevertheless, Bryan negotiated the third leg before handing over to Nurse as Barbados registered a time of 3:50.49 minutes behind Jamaica (3:43.43).
Earlier, CARIFTA Games 1500-metre champion Ashlyn Simmons produced her second medal of the meet, capturing silver in the Under-17 girls 800-metre in 2:16.28 minutes while Bryan (2:16.81) took bronze.
Meantime in the Under-20 boys 800-metre, Favian Gollop secured silver in 1:52.33 minutes to split Trinidad & Tobago’s duo of Nathan Cumberbatch (1:51.34) and Stefan Camejo (1:52.33) who clinched gold and bronze respectively.
In the girls’ equivalent, gold medallist Layla Haynes added silver to her collection after finishing as the runner-up in 2:11.90 minutes behind Michelle Smith of the British Virgin Islands.
Nya Browne also came to the medal party with bronze in the Under-20 girls’ 100-meter hurdles event. The Queen’s College student clocked a personal best time of 13.80 seconds to repeat last year’s bronze medal performance in Kingston, Jamaica.
Browne edged out teammate Maliah Edwards (14.19 seconds) but the race was won by defending champion Alexis James of Jamaica in a new Carifta record of 13.06 seconds. Jamaica’s Asharria Ulette took silver in 13.24 seconds.
In the Under-20 boys’ 110-metre hurdles final, Barbados’ Nikkolai Kennedy narrowly missed out on bronze with a fourth place finish in 14.02 seconds. His teammate Jadon Pearce came sixth with a time of 14.37 seconds. The event was won by Jamaica’s Demario Prince (13.37).
Barbados’ fastest schoolgirl Aniya Nurse endured a tough challenge in the Under-17 girls 200-metre final and was eighth in 25.15 seconds. The overseas-based Khristel Martindale turned in an impressive performance in the Under-20 girls 200-metre final but was just outside the medals in fourth position after clocking 24.25 seconds in a race won by Trinidad & Tobago’s Sanaa Frederick (23.60).
Last year’s Under-17 boys’ 3000-metre champion Fynn Armstrong moved up to the 5000-metre but never found his rhythm and finished tenth in 16:40.19 minutes.
Last night, Barbados lodged a successful protest against the result of the Under-20 boys’ 4×100 meter relay and the event was set to rerun on Monday evening at 3:25 p.m. However, the teams withdrew from the rerun forcing the organisers to keep the result.
According to reports from the Bahamas, Barbados protested because the race was recalled on the first leg giving the quartet of Amari Knight, T’Shaun Sealy, Amani Mascoll-Beckles and Aragon Straker a disadvantage.
It is understood that the first-leg runner from the Bahamas did not hear the starter’s gun and was left in the blocks. The Bajans were fourth in the race and fifth in the Under-20 boys 4×400 metre relay. Team Barbados will leave the Bahamas tomorrow with two golds, six silvers and two bronze. (AGB)
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