Guyana’s pair of 19-year-old sprint sensations Stephan James and Chavez Ageday each secured a bronze in their first events of the CAIXA South American Under 23 Championships which began on Friday evening in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
However the pair was not as fortunate in the 200m yesterday placing fifth and sixth.
Both athletes set their electronically timed personal records in their events.
On opening night, Ageday quietly qualified for the final of the men’s under-23 100m by placing third in his semifinal in 10.9s. Ageday had competed at the South American Under-23 Games in Colombia when he was just 17 and placed seventh, posting a personal record of 10.87s.
This time Ageday fought his way onto the podium with an impressive time of 10.65 seconds to narrowly edge Argentina’a Matias Robledo (10.67) for his first medal in international competition by two hundredths of a second.
The race was won by Brazil’s Olympic semi-finalist Aldemir Gomes in 10.42s while Colombian Isidro Montoya copped the silver medal.
Ageday’s coach Raymond Dauw, who is still in Guyana, was elated to hear of his athlete’s success especially after recovering from a string of injuries last year. Dauw said that Ageday’s success was miraculous considering that he has limited facilities available to him for even for his basic training sessions.
Unlike most athletes who have to luxury of training on grass tracks, Ageday trains on the road close to the Mahaica Bridge.
James’ second SA medal
Many hopes were placed on the shoulders of James to medal at this event and he did not disappoint once again at the South American level. James recorded his new personal best and national junior record of 46.52s to place third behind Pedro Luiz Burmann de Oliveira of Brazil who took the gold in 45.52s and Venezuelan Arturo Ramirez, who clocked 46.20s for second. James had won his semifinal heat in 47.18s on Friday night.
James was eliminated from the semi-final round at the 2012 IAAF Junior World Championships in July but had broken the national junior 400m at that event when he posted 46.99s. James had copped bronze at the South American Junior Championships just last year in Colombia where he clocked 47.79s.
Both sprinters, however failed to medal in the 200m with James placing fifth in 21.4s and Ageday, sixth, in 21.7s.
James had placed second in heat one of the 200m semifinal on Saturday morning while Ageday placed third in his heat. James clocked 21.65s while Ageday clocked 21.62s. Both had advanced to the final which was held last night. James had defeated Ageday at the trials two Sundays ago at the Police Sports Club ground Eve Leary.
