Records by the dozen

Sonia Gaskin powering home for Parkinson in the Under-20 Girls’ spint medley. (Pictures by Kenmore Bynoe.)

John Haynes leading Lodge School’s victory charge with a super 800-metre run on the final leg.

Canadian Ebhani Blackwood won the Under-15 Girls’ long jump with a record leap of 5.25 metres

Sandrena Small of UWI belied her name to show strength in winning the shot put.

By Sherrylyn A. Toppin | Sun, February 12, 2012 - 12:03 AM

One more CARIFTA qualifier and 12 records were the highlights of the early session during yesterday’s 9th Barbados Relay Fair at the National Stadium.

Cloudy skies gave way to beautiful sunshine and as the day heated up, so did the athletes and their performances.

Nicoliai Bovelle of Elite Distance had already met the CARIFTA qualifying standard of 59 metres for the Under-20 Boys’ javelin. Yesterday, he also surpassed the 61 metres required for the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Junior Championships.

His clubmate Janeill Craigg, who had come close, hit the mark and also put his name down for CAC with a throw of 61.62 metres.

Justin Cummins, the national record holder, won the event with 71.11 metres, still short of the mark for the Olympics.

The other field event records went to Canada’s Ebhani Blackwood of Extreme Velocity with a personal best 5.25m in the Under-15 Girls’ long jump and Sandrena Small with 34.57m in the women’s discus.

The action was hot on the track and all eyes were on the Combermere “bomb squad” now that the Ellerslie quartet has moved on. Instead, it was The Lodge School who stole the show with Shaquille Hollingsworth, Justin Nicholls, Anderson Devonish and John Haynes on anchor in the sprint medley (200x200x400x800).

Haynes ran a smart 800-leg to seal the win in 3 minutes, 30.17 seconds, erasing Ellerslie’s 3:30.50.

St Leonard’s were second in 3:39.29 with Kion Joseph on anchor, and Combermere third in 3:45.12.

Combermere won the Under-17 Boys’ sprint medley in 3:54.85.

Lodge’s Under-17 400-metre quartet of Akeem McCollin, Shae Nurse, Kyle Farrell and Tamal Atwell were also impressive, with Atwell just nosing Combermere’s Ramarco Thompson (43.60) to set a new record of 43.58.

The individual performance of the meet had to be from Parkinson’s Sonia Gaskin in the Under-20 Girls’ sprint medley.

Receiving the baton in fourth place on the 800-metre leg, Gaskin ran a beautiful race, moving to third place with just under 400 metres to go.

She took down the competitors from St Michael and Queen’s College. The last person to fall was Combermere’s Gabiel Ellis (4:26.26) who had led the race for the last 500 metres. Gaskin sprinted past and all the way home to win in 4:21.40.

Springer Memorial’s Under-13 team, with Rosette Hoyte on anchor, won the 4x100m (55.85) and the Swedish medley (100x200x300x400) in a record 2:35.85 down, from the 2:43.63 set in 2010. Alexandra with 2:38.21 and Believers (2:41.05) were also on record pace.

Not to be outdone, the Queen’s College Under-15 quartet of Janina Mayers, Alana Ince, Beatrice Lovell and Timeka Jordan clocked 51.17, lowering the record from 51.23 in the 4x100.

St Michael, with Ayanna Morgan, Leah Barker, Danielle Scantlebury and Shanice Howell, won the 4x100 in a record 48.15 seconds and the sprint medley in 4:29.73.