The opening event of the Athletics Association of Guyana’s 2018 season yesterday saw long jumpers Chantoba Bright, Toyan Raymond, Princess Browne, Anthony Williams and Ronaldo Greene all making the qualifying standard for this year’s CARIFTA Games.
At the Leonora Track and Field Facility, the athletes battled the inclement weather and their competitors with the result being only five were able to make the qualify marks after some 41 events on the first trials of three.
In the boys 14-19 long jump, Williams, representing Guyana Police force leapt 7.10 metres, the furthest jump of the day while Greene (Upper Demerara) leapt 6.88 metres to easily pass the qualifying standard of 6.80 metres.
Meanwhile, Upper Demerara’s Bright, leapt 6.04 metres dwarfing the qualifying standard of 5.50 meters. Raymond, of DeChallengers, leapt 5.75 metres to also make the qualifying standard while Browne, who leapt 5.58 metres was the third girl in the under 20 category to meet the qualifying standard.
Also in the day’s action, Leslain Baird a Coast Guard rank of the Guyana Defence Force shattered his own national javelin record.
Competing in the men’s 20+ class. Baird, threw the javelin a whopping 74.71 metres, well ahead of his previous best of 73.46 metres, which he set back in July, 2017.
Coming considerably close to the qualifying standards were Raymond and Kenisha Phillips in the under 20 girl’s 100 metre dash. The pair ran 12.17 seconds (sec) and 12.20 seconds respectively with the qualifying standard set at 12.00 seconds.
Cassie Small from Suriname finished the 400 metre dash in the under 20 girl’s event in 1.53 seconds missing the qualifying mark of 58.05 seconds. Similarly, fellow Surinamese, Tyrell Peters clocked in 10.89 secs in the male 100 metre dash, just shy of the qualifying standard time of 10.75 seconds.Daniel Williams also missed out on the 400 metre qualifying standard as he ran 49.31 seconds with the standard set at 48.50 seconds. Ronell Newton was also two seconds short of the qualifying time in the 1500 metre under 20 boys event.
The second trials is set for Sunday at the same venue as the athletes prepare for the CARIFTA Games which is billed for March 31 to April 2 in The Bahamas.
