At least eight athletes made sure that their tickets could be booked for the CARIFTA Games in Grenada next month when they triumphantly competed at the ‘Smalta National Youth and Junior Championships’ over the weekend at the National Track and Field Centre.
Usual suspects, Kenisha Phillips, Compton Caesar, Samuel Lynch, Andrea Foster and Matthew McKenzie were among those who equaled or bettered the AAG’s qualifying marks in their respective events.
With their heroics, the standout teen athletes perhaps punched their tickets to the Caribbean island to compete at the Easter weekend Games in St George’s.
Here are a few highlights:
Under-18 Girls 200m
Phillips recorded a sprint double in the 200m yesterday after winning the 100m in 11.97s on Saturday but more importantly was the fashion in which she did it.
In her sophomore appearance at the CARIFTA Trials, the 15-year old made running against more celebrated athletes look easy as she breezed past Avon Samuels on the turn on her way to clocking an eye popping 24.8s.
While her 200m was three hundredths of a second off the AAG’s qualifying mark (24.5s), her 100m time was 300 hundredths of a second faster than was stipulated (12.0s).
Under-20 Boys 200m
Caesar also recorded a sprint double after winning the 100m final on Saturday in 10.62s but unlike Phillips he was able to qualify for the CARIFTA Games in the half lap event.
Besides the clock and the gust swirling around the stadium, the Lindener had little opposition from the start of the pistol and powered through in 21.51s. His winning time was a shade faster than the AAG’s qualifying time set at 21.6s.
Under-18 Boys 800m/under-20 Girls
Both Lynch (1m:59.09s) and Foster (2m:14.15s) ran faster than the stipulated mark for the 800m and could be donning national colours next month in Grenada.
Under-20 Boys 5000m
McKenzie’s time of 16 minutes, 15.8 seconds was some 14.2 seconds faster than the qualifying mark and should be considered to represent Guyana at the March 26-28 Games at The National Athletic Stadium.
Other qualifiers include triple jumper, Natricia Hooper, Tiranna Mitchell (100m U-20) and 200m under-18 athlete, Daniel Williams (21.77s).
The athletes will now await word on who will be selected to represent Guyana at the 45th edition of the Games.
