MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica, CMC – Adrian Williams smashed a longstanding record to hand St Kitts and Nevis their first gold medal of the 40th CARIFTA Games, as he won the boys’ under-17 javelin here Saturday for the second year running.
Competing in the morning session of the Games at the Catherine Hall Sports Complex, the impressive Williams recorded a throw of 60.15 metres to eclipse the previous record of 59.39 metres set by Kerry Edwards of Trinidad and Tobago 18 years ago.
St Lucian Denzil St. Marthe measured 58.91m to be second while Williams’ teammate J’Anthon Sillidy captured bronze with a throw of 55.01m.
Despite his outstanding performance, Williams was still short of his personal best of 62.54 which he recorded earlier this month in Basseterre at the National Championships, which served as a qualifier for the CARIFTA campaign.
That mark also qualified Williams for the IAAF World Youth Championship to be staged in France in July.
Williams, who won silver at the Central American and Caribbean Junior Championships in Santo Domingo last year, measured 57.86 metres when he won the CARIFTA title in Cayman Islands last year.
Meanwhile, Barbadian Akela Jones repeated her success from last year by winning the girls under-17 high jump with a leap of 1.75 metres.
While she was short of her record mark of 1.85m, she still easily beat Jamaican Krista Gay Taylor (1.70) into second and the Netherland Antilles’ Sharyanne Gijsbertha (1.70) into third.
Jamaican Travis Smikle grabbed the hosts’ first gold medal when he won the boys under-20 discus with a throw of 62.84 metres.
Akeem Stewart of Trinidad and Tobago took silver with 51.50m while Grenada’s Kellon Alexis was third with a throw of 50.60 seconds.
Guadeloupe’s Laurianne Laurendot was also in winners’ row as she snatched the girls under-20 shot putt with a measurement of 13.80 metres.
Jamaican Kellion Knibb was second with 13.79m with Edlyn Edgecombe of Antigua and Barbuda third with 12.93m.
