Middle distance maestro, Attoya Harvey led Guyana’s three-medal haul on the opening day of the CARIFTA Games being staged here in Kingston, Jamaica by storming to victory in the Under-17 Girl’s 1500m event.
Saturday, the talented 16 year-old showed sublime form, winning in wire-to-wire fashion in a personal best time of 4:45.75s, besting Trinidad’s Kayleigh Forde (4:52.14s) and Jamaica’s Kededra Forde (4:52.19s) who faded to third.
A stoic Harvey said she was elated to finally mine gold at a CARIFTA event after qualifying for the last two editions which were both canceled due to the pandemic. However, she highlighted that there is still goals to achieve in the 800m and 3000m events.
Javon Roberts (1500m) and Narissa McPherson (400m) were the other Guyanese who shone among the brightest teen stars under the floodlights of the National Stadium by earning silver medals in their respective races.
Roberts ran a personal best 4:12.54s with a brilliant finish on the final straight to surge to second place behind Trinidad’s Keeran Sriskandarajah (4:10.58s). Yoshane Bowen of Jamaica snared the bronze in 4:13.15s.
McPherson, sandwiched by a pair of Jamaicans, recorded a personal best performance in 55.39s. Jamaica’s Abigail Campbell dominantly won the one-lap event in 53.83s with Quana Walker occupying the third spot in 55.65s.
In the marquee 100m race yesterday highlighted by the famous Clayton twins, Tina and Tia, Keliza Smith (11.58s) barely missed out on the podium placing fourth in 100ths of a second behind Trinidad’s Sheniqua Bascombe (11.57s).
The twins placed 1-2 with Tina clocking a scorching 11.22s and Tia finishing just behind in 11.30s.
Meanwhile, Guyana’s other representatives on show Saturday were sprinters, Ezekiel Newton, Shemar Horatio, Hannah Reid and thrower, Gabriel Lim.
Newton and Horatio competed in the blue riband 100m event but failed to get further than the heats, clocking 11.16s and 10.99s respectively. Their event was won by Jamaica’s Deandre Daley in a blistering 10.23s.
Reid, after winning the semi-final in the Girls U-20 event in 55.02s, finished eighth in the final in 55.38s which saw the podium being occupied by a pair of Jamaicans, Kayla Kelly (52.32s) and Oneika McAnnuff (52.52s). Bermuda’s Caitlyn Bobb (53.12s) was third.
Lim finished seventh in the javelin and 11th in the discus with throws of 53.37m and 37.40m in that order.
