The 45-athlete contingent, which racked up third-highest medal count, including 10 gold, five silver and seven bronze, at last weekend’s Central America and Caribbean (CAC) Junior Track and Field Championships, in Mexico, is expected to return home today.
T&T athletes completed the three-day competition with an improved gold medal haul compared to 2012’s eight. Jonathan Farinha and Aaliyah Telesford were both double-gold medal earners, with the former having won the Boys’ Under-20 100m dash, before leading the 4x100m team to relay gold. Farinha also placed second in the 200m event in 20.82 seconds, behind Zharnel Hughes, who broke the championship record in 20.33 seconds. Telesford similarly won Girls’ U-20 100m final before she, Zakiya Denoon, Kayelle Clarke and Akila McShine claimed the division’s 4x100m relay title. On Sunday, the final day of competition, Machel Cedenio (45.28 seconds) successfully defended his 400m title just three months after he won gold at the Carifta Games in Martinique. He was five-hundredths of a second off his national junior record breaking run (45.23), which he clocked at the Cayman Invitational, which was also a junior world leading time.
Shakeil Waithe (javelin, 70.39m) was the other gold medal winner in the Boys’ U-20 division. Portious Warren was the only gold medalist in the Girls’ Under-20 division. For T&T’ Boys’ U-18 team, Andwuelle Wright dominated the long jump event as he also defended his title with a 7.15m leap, an improvement from his 7.07m effort two years ago.
That division also saw T&T produce two relay teams earn gold. David Winchester, Akanni Hislop, Corey Stewart and Xavier Mulugata took the spotlight with their gold in the 4x100m relay, while Kobe John, Terry Frederick, Jacob St Clair and Kashief King did the same in the U-18 4x400m. T&T’s U-20 boys’ 4x400m team, led by Farinha and including Ohdel James, Asa Guevara and Breon Mullins won bronze with a 3:13.73 effort. Guevara and Cedenio were part of the U-18 team which won the 4x400m relay event at the last CAC Junior Championships.
Denoon, who helped her team to relay glory also finished with two silver medals from the girls’s U-20 100m (11.47) and 200m (23.63) events. Clarke finished behind her in the 200m, clocking 23.71m. McShine then claimed bronze in same division’s 100m hurdles in 14.05 seconds.
Among the boys’ U-18 other medalists, Hislop finished third in both the 100m (10.63) and 200m (21.27) races, while Ian West amassed 5,888 points to take bronze in the decathlon. Not much separated West and Mexico’s Jafett Juarez, who broke the championship record with 5,945 points.
Only one silver and one bronze came from T&T’s U-18 girls, through Jeminise Parris (13.70 seconds) and Chelsea James (16m), in the 100m hurdles and shot put events, respectively.
The efforts of T&T’s athletes saw this country finish behind only Mexico (100 medals) and Jamaica (42 medals), which supplied 147 and 54 athletes, respectively. In total, 85 events were contested. Following the return of T&T’s athletes, a number of them will turn their focus to the IAAF World Junior Championships, in Oregon, USA, which runs from July 22-27.
Results:
Medals standings
1 Mexico 100 (36 gold, 43 silver, 21 bronze)
2 Jamaica 43 (15, 17, 11)
3 T&T 22 (10, 5, 7)
4 Bahamas 20 (7, 8, 5)
5 Puerto Rico 20 (6, 5, 9)
Select Results
Boys Under-18
4x400m relay
1. T&T (Kobe John, Terry Frederick, Jacon St Clair, Kashief King), 3:13.93
2. Bahamas 3:14.70
3. Jamaica 3:16.27
Decathlon
1. Jafet Juarez (Mexico) 5945
2. Jose Hernandez (Puerto Rico) 5912
3. Ian West (T&T) 5888
Boys Under-20
400m finals
1. Machel Cedenio (T&T), 45.28
2. Twayne Crooks (Jamaica), 46.50
3. Warren Hazel (St Kitts), 46.72
Javelin
1. Shakeil Waithe (T&T), 70.39
2. Denzel Prat (Bahamas), 66.18
3. Orlando Thomas (Jamaica), 63.89
110m hurdles finals (+1.0)
1. Marvin Williams (Jamaica), 13.52
2. Reubin Walters (T&T), 13.59
3. Ricardo Torres (Puerto Rico), 13.76,
4. Aaron Lewis (T&T), 13.85
4x400m finals
1. Jamaica, 3:11.20
2. Puerto Rico, 3:12.70
3. T&T (Ohdel James, Nathan Farinha, Asa Guevera, Breon Mullings), 3:13.73
Decathlon
1. Felipe Ruiz (Mexico), 6440
2. Franciso Olguin (Mexico), 6244
3. Ronald Ramirez (Guatemala), 6072
4. Kevin Roberts (T&T), 5821
5. Victor Isaac (T&T), 5694
Girls Under-20
Javelin
1. Danna Corral (Mexico), 42.78m
2. Isheka Binns (Jamaica), 42.21m
3. Yulisha De la Rosa (Dominican Republic), 39.68m
4. Chuntal Mohan (T&T), 38.89m