THE Pine Hill Dairy National Primary Schools’ Athletics Championships (NAPSAC) began with a bang yesterday at the Usain Bolt Sports Complex with St Catherine’s Primary walking away as double crown champions of the Obadele Thompson Zone.
St Catherine’s, sponsored by Gomez and Western Services, dethroned St James Primary in the girls’ division to win with a whopping 184 points on a day of total domination. St James were a distant second with 145 points while St Mark’s Primary were third with 137 points. Rounding out the top five were St Ambrose Primary with 123 points and St Elizabeth Primary with 72.5 points.
It was another runaway victory for St Catherine’s in the boys as they retained their title with 158 points. St Ambrose were second with 158 pints while Boscobel Primary were third with 109 points. St Mark’s Primary were fourth with 97 points while St James Primary were fifth with 71 points.
Five new records were set in front of the small crowd as the young athletes put their all into their performances in steaming conditions at the Ryan Brathwaite Track.
The first record of the day came in the gruelling Open Girls’ 600-metre run. It was a strong fight to the finish line between Isha Adamson of St Elizabeth Primary and Achauna Belgrave of St Ambrose. In the end it was Adamson who crossed the line first in 2:02.41 while Belgrave was second in 2:02.42. Both athletes were under the old record of two minutes, 3.02 seconds.
Adamson was also the joint Under-13 Girls’ champion after she accumulated 28 points over the course of the day. Darielle Taitt of St James Primary also ended with 28 points.
The only other track record of the day fell in the Under-9 Boys’ 80 metre dash thanks to Boscobel Primary’s Ryon Stuart. He slammed the field to win in 12.59 seconds, erasing the previous best of 12.60 seconds. Aiden Clarke of Wills Preparatory was second in 12.62 seconds with Azarian Browne of St Mark’s third in 13.51 seconds.
Stuart ended as the Under-9 Boys’ champion after he captured 30 points.
Both standing broad jump records fell by the wayside compliments of Jahzaria Ward of St Elizabeth and Akeri Davis of St Catherine’s.
Ward won with 1.46 metres with St Catherine’s Jahzara Inniss second with 1.33 metres. Finishing third was Jatajah Roach of St Ambrose who leapt 1.30 metres. Ward was crowned the Under-7 Girls’ champion with 28 points.
Davis leapt to victory in the boys’ event with 1.47 metres, smashing the old record of 1.39 metres. Dario Jules-Nightengale of St Ambrose was second with 1.38 metres while Jesaiah Williamson of St Ambrose was third with 1.34 metres. Davis was the Under-7 Boys’ champion with 25 points.
The record in the Under-9 Girls’ long jump was obliterated by St Catherine’s Kaliah Tull, who recorded a jump of 3.09 metres. The old record was 2.89 metres and none of the other competitors came close to surpassing the three-metre mark. Aakeba Nurse of St Ambrose was second with 2.83 metres while teammate Shavania Hackett was third with 2.61 metres.
NAPSAC will continue today with the staging of the Patsy Callender Zone from 10 a.m. Charles F. Broome Primary are the defending girls’ champions while West Terrace are the reigning boys’ champions.
petragooding@nationnews.com
