JAMAICA’S junior athletes are still the kings and queens of Caribbean track and field as they completed yet another comprehensive win at the Carifta Games at Hasely Crawford Stadium in Port of Spain, Trinidad, on Monday.
The country topped the table, winning 78 medals.
It was a 39th-straight win for the Jamaicans and 47th overall in the championships established in 1972 by Barbadian Austin Sealy.
The Jamaicans, who ended the three-day championships winning both girls’ 4x400m relays and dominating in the field events, won 30 gold, 27 silver and 21 bronze, well ahead of second-placed The Bahamas which won both boys’ mile relay events and had a total of 37 medals — just short of the 40 they targeted.After a slower than usual start on Saturday, Jamaica fell just short of the 84 medals they won last year in Grenada, matched the 78 won in 2023, but were well off the record 92 they won when they hosted the 2022 edition.
Kamari Kennedy was one of the standout athletes over the three days, and added a second championship record on Monday when he threw 60.87m to win the Under-17 boys’ discus throw a day after he had broken the shot put record on Sunday.
His mark was well over the previous record of 53.32m set in 2019 by another Jamaican, Kobe Lawrence, almost 7.50m better in a dominant display during which all five legal marks were over the previous record.
Brandon Lawrence picked up a second medal when he took the silver with 49.00m while Kaiden Kemp of The Bahamas was third with 47.63m.Jamaica failed to win a medal in either of the two Under-17 200m finals but World Athletics Under-20 medallist Shanoya Douglas made amends with a brilliant curve on her way to retaining the Under-20 girls’ gold medal in 23.02 seconds (-0.3m/s).
Trinidad and Tobago’s Sole Frederick was second with 23.43 seconds, and Sabrina Dockery of Jamaica placed third in 23.45 seconds, the same order as last year.
Tyreese Foreman was second in the Under-20 boys’ 200m in 20.95 seconds (0.6m/s) while Junior Gallimore was third in 21.01 seconds, both behind Jayden Green who won Barbados’s first gold medal of the championship, running 20.93 seconds.
The Girls’ Under-17 4x400m team ran 3:39.39 seconds and the Under-20 team was anchored by Douglas for her fourth gold medal of the weekend, won in 3:37.75 minutes; the Under-20 boys were second in 3:07.44.
Earlier, Shaquane Gordon ran a championship record 13.19 seconds (1.4m/s) to retain his Under-20 boys’ 110m hurdles title, highlighting Jamaicans winning three of the four gold medals in the sprint hurdles finals.
Daniel Clarke equalled the championship record 13.23 seconds in the morning’s qualification but it was Gordon who took charge in the finals to erase the time that was first run in 2014 by Wilhem Belocian of Guadeloupe.
Clarke was also under the old record in 13.21 seconds for the silver medal while Tahj Brown of The Bahamas was third in 13.82 seconds.
