By Marlon Munroe
Local law enforcers took a commanding lead over the lawmen and women of Barbados and Trinidad & Tobago on the first day of competition at the Eve Leary ground yesterday in the 56th edition of the Guyana Police Force (GPF) Track & Field Championships yesterday.
The locals will enter today’s second day of competition on 115 points while Trinidad & Tobago trail a distant second on 33.
Barbados are currently struggling on 24 points.
The local police officers relished their top positions in all of the seven finals thus far and the preliminary events.
Additionally, in the local competition, Headquarters (82) holds a slender lead over `A’ Division which has 63 points. In third and fourth positions are `B’ Division and Country Division on 28 and 23 points respectively.
Few athletes stood out while most showed glimpses of their former athletic prowess under overcast skies. Two of the standouts were Troy Williams and Desmond Nicholson of Headquarters who won the `A’ class and `B’ class long-jump events.
Both jumpers used the hang technique and leapt to victory. Williams leapt a distance of 6.40 metres in the `B’ class event with HQ’s Trevor Benn, who leapt 6.02 metres, second, and `B’ Division’s Cordell Mentore with 5.90 metres, third.
In the `A’ class category, Nicholson came out on top with a distance of 5.90 metres while former schools’ sprint champion Keith Roberts and Winston George were second and third with distances of 5.56 metres and 5.14 metres respectively.
On the distaff side Guyana’s Donna Ferguson of HQ took the pole position with a distance of 4.15m, Barbados’ Sophie Reece best jump was 4.10m for the second position while Sharmain Clarke of Country Division was third with 4.04m.
Larry Josiah continued his dominance of the 800m event at this level with the retention of his title in a time of 2:06.01. George came in second with a time of 2:13.05 while Barbadian Nelile Mierez rounded out the podium spots with 2:14.0.
In the 3000m `A’ Division Shyann Boyer finished ahead of the field in a time of 13:24.06; Samantha Williams, also of `A’ Division was second with a time of 13:59.07 and Toshanna Punch rounded out the podium in a time of 14:16.01.
Over in the field events T&T’s J and E Huggins took the top positions in the discus. J. Huggins threw the disc 32.92 metres while her compatriot E. Huggins was second with a distance of 25.79 metres. Guyana’s Natasha Alder was dethroned finishing in third position with a distance of 24.56 metres.
On the men’s side in the `A’ class category Ronald Payne exacted revenge for the Guyanese when he won with a throw of 28.71 metres. His teammate Michael Pollydore threw 27.41 for second while T&T’s Shane Dyer placed third with a throw of 21.45 metres.
The discus `B’ class winning throw also failed to beat the ladies winning throw. Collis Fraser of HQ threw 31.75 metres for his win while Cordell English (HQ) and Colin Bristol of `A’ Division were second and third respectively with distances of 28.89 metres and 26.14 metres.
The competition continues today with the officers clashing in the triple jump, javelin, cycling, 200m, 800m and 5000m events from 10:00 hours.