National junior cricketer Shaquille Williams yesterday switched from the pitch to the track to give dominant performances in the under-18 category sprint races at the St Joseph High School Inter-House Athletics meet held at the Police Sports Club Ground, Eve Leary.
With races that saw enthusiastic participation and competition, St Joseph High yesterday became the latest of the schools in the East Georgetown District to conclude the selection of their athletes for the upcoming Schools Champion of Champions athletic meet scheduled for October 14 – 15 at GCC Ground, Bourda.
There was stiff competition from each House but the performances of the athletes in Holtipu House put them in the lead; although points are still to be totalled to determine the official winner. Akaiwana House is expected to finish in second place, Wenishema in third and Marudi, fourth, despite the outstanding contributions made by Williams. Irmaipan and Paramakatoi will take fifth and sixth places respectively.
Williams headlined the performances taking first place in the 100m, 200m and 400m races and third place in the boys’ open 5,000m.
In the 100m, Williams took an easy lead with Louis Brown from Akaiwana in second and Doechand Da Silva in third.
A similar effortless performance was executed in the 200m, as results replicated the 100m. However, in the 400m while starting out in the lead Williams faced stiff competition from Winston Forrester as well as Da Silva, and twice seemed at risk of tasting defeat.
With Williams re-establishing the advantage after a huge effortn Da Silva and Forrester strenuously battled for the second position as the race came down to the final 100m. In the end it was Forrester who prevailed and Da Silva settled for third.
In the 5,000m, however, Williams had to settle in third position as Forrester grabbed victory ahead of Livan Nanan who came in second.
Meanwhile, the girls’ open 3,000m was won by Aruna Charran ahead of Chelsea Weeks and Simone Sinclair respectively. Charran then returned to dominate in the girls’ under-16 800m and 1,500m, where she came in ahead of Cassandra Forde in both events. In the other under-16 female results, the 100m was won by Latesha Samuels and the 200m and 400m races were both won by Christine Samuels.
On the male side of the under-16 category Joshua Lovell won the 1,500m; Shaquille Griffith won the 400m; Yohance Hendricks won the 200m and 100m dashes.
Also putting in noteworthy performances, was N’Tasha Clark in the under-12 category. The Wenishema athlete opened with a victory in the 100m sprint, before returning to devour the 200m and then she rounding off a take of all the sprint events with her final performance in the 400m. In all of her events Clark was trailed by Akaiwana’s Briana Alleyne.
In the under-14 category the top athlete was Crystal Frank, who took two wins in the 100m and 200m sprints, each time running ahead of Shelene Dawson. In the 400m Dawson also took a third, with the race being won by Tricia Rogers with Diana Angoy in second.
The day’s events ended on a satisfying note with the run off of the girls’ open 4x100m relay that was won by Wenishema from the team of Simone Sinclair, Shebiki Jeffrey, Yokevia Hinckson and Latesha Adams.
Second place went to Marudi, comprising Asidia Trim, Krisandra Henry, Ereta Edwards and Diana Mingo, and third place was won by the Irmaipan team with Renita Savoury Audreana Thompson, Lisa Romeo and Crystal Frank.
