Jamaica credited with 81 medals, 10 records at 2015 Carifta Games
BY PAUL A REID Observer writer
Sunday, April 12, 2015
Medallists (from left) Sanjae Lawrence (shot put silver), Safia Morgan (high jump gold), Shanae McKenzie (high jump bronze), Isheeka Binns (javelin gold), Ayesha Champaignie (javelin silver) and Demar Gayle (shot put gold) pose with their medals.
LAST Monday Jamaica completed a historic 31st straight table-topping performance at the 44th Carifta Games at the newly renamed Kim Collins Stadium in Basseterre, St Kitts.
While the Jamaicans failed to get past the record 89 medals won the previous year in Fort de France, Martinique, they swept all the relays, both 4x100m last Sunday and 4x400m the following day, the first time any nation was able to accomplish that feat at any one staging of the event traditionally held on the Easter weekend.
Jamaica bagged a total of 86 medals, but three events — the boys’ pole vault open and both girls’ 400m hurdles were ‘exhibition’ events only, as they did not have the minimum number of nations taking part, thus reducing Jamaica’s tally by five medals.
The official count saw Jamaica winning with 81 medals, comprising 39 gold, 23 silver and 19 bronze. The Bahamas won 31 — eight gold, 13 silver and 10 bronze; Barbados gained 16 — seven gold, four silver and five bronze, and Trinidad and Tobago earned 22 — six gold, eight silver and eight bronze.
Seven nations won at least one gold medal, while 19 of the 25 nations that took part in the four-day event won at least one medal.
Despite the dominance, however, it has been eight years since a Jamaican won the Austin Sealy Award that goes to the outstanding athlete of the championships. Sprinter Yohan Blake in 2007 when he set the Under-20 100m record of 10.11 seconds was the last Jamaican.
Barbados’s Mary Fraser, who won the Under-18 girls 800m, 1,500m and 3,000m took the award.
Twelve records were broken, including 10 by Jamaicans, and one equalled, that being Jamaica’s Christoffe Bryan clearing 2.21m in the Under-20 boys’ high jump.
Fifteen-year-old Christopher Taylor featured in two records, breaking Usain Bolt’s 47.33 seconds set in 2002, winning the Under-18 boys’ 400m in 46.64 seconds, then anchored the 4x400m team to a new 3 minutes 21.07 seconds.
The Under-18 boys’ 4x100m team of Tyreke Wilson, Xavier Angus, Rushane Edwards and DeJour Russell ran 40.52 seconds for a new mark.
Both records in the multi-events, the octathlon and heptathlon, were also broken. Shakiel Chatoo amassed 5,839 points in the eight-event octathlon to take the gold, while Ayesha Champagnie got 5,231 points to win the heptathlon, beating the 5,172 points she set while winning at the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Champs a week earlier.
Isheeka Binns threw the javelin 49.72m to win the Under-20 girls’ event and setting a new record, while Sahjay Stevens set a new Under-18 girls’ shot put record with 16.31m.
Janeek Brown lowered her Under-18 girls’ 100m record, running 13.29 seconds (1.2m/s), while Junelle Bromfield ran a brilliant 59.55 seconds to win the Under-18 girls’ 400m hurdles, the fastest of any female at the meet in the first season she was contesting the event.
The other three records that fell came in the Under-18 boys’ 110m hurdles where The Bahamas’s Trevor Mott ran a hand-timed 13.1 seconds.
Isaiah Taylor of Trinidad and Tobago won the Under-18 shot put with 17.56m, while his teammate Tyriq Hosford threw the javelin 70.73m.
