Akela Jones snatched victory from the jaws of defeat to win her second gold medal here yesterday at the 40th LIME CARIFTA Games at the Montego Bay Sports Complex, Catherine Hall.
Her performance was followed in fine style by that of Dario Scantlebury and Jahvere Worrell, who collected gold and bronze, respectively in the Boys Under-17 400-metre hurdles.Scantlebury’s winning time was 54.23 seconds, while Worrell was third in 55.42 seconds.
Tramaine Maloney completed Barbados’ medal winners when he also earned a bronze, running in the Boys Under-20 400 hurdles. His time was unavailable up to press time. The Barbados medal tally now stands at 13 – five gold, two silver and six bronze.
Jones won the Under-17 Girls’ long jump with a leap of 5.66 metres. With a season’s best of 6.18 metres, breaking Jackie Edwards’ 6.14 metre record from 1981 was firmly in her sights, but that was not to be.
In the first three rounds, Jones had leaps of 5.23, 5.11 and 5.10 metres, but was still able to advance among the top eight, as did Jalisa Burrowes who finished joint seventh with 5.19 metres, abandoning the event after injuring her right hip.
Some advice from assistant coach Nikkisha Maynard and Jones looked like a different person, producing 5.57 metres on the fourth attempt to jump to second place. Suddenly all of the pressure was on Jamaica’s Claudette Allen (5.61) and Dannielle Gibson (5.53) who had been comfortably leading.
But Jones wasn’t done.
On the fifth attempt, she produced the winning leap to steal the gold.
“I guess I wasn’t fully warmed up in the opening rounds, but in the last three rounds Miss Maynard told me to stay warm, keep doing run-throughs. That is exactly what I did. I followed her instructions and I came out victorious,” Jones told NATIONSPORT.
“I am not satisfied with my jump really. I expected to come out here and break the CARIFTA record since I jumped past it just two weeks ago. I came first. I won a medal for Barbados. Thanks for the support from Barbados.”
Nicoliai Bovelle also had to work for his third placed finish. His very first throw looked to be in the region of 60 metres, but that was moot after he slid past the line for a foul. He spent the rest of the competition trying to catch up, consistently throwing 56. On the very last attempt, he got it together with 58.42 metres to keep Jamaican Jeffrey King (56.35) off the podium. Trinidadian Keshorn Walcott destroyed the 24-year-old record of 65.52 which was set by Jamaica’s Jean Rene Ceykan in 1987.
First he took it to 67.81 metres, and then blew that out of the water with 72.04 metres. Emron Gibbs of Grenada took silver with 58.42 metres. Shakera Hall dug deep to try to get a bronze medal in the Under-17 Girls’ 300 metres hurdles, but stumbled as Pedrya Seymour of The Bahamas (42.66) pulled alongside her. She had a season’s best 43.37 but was fourth overall.
Jamaica took the top two positions with Peta Gaye Williams (41.55) and Kimone Green (41.85), while Sade-Mariah Greenidge finished down the field in the Under-20 Girls’ 400-metre hurdles. Her official time was not available.
The semi-finals of the 200 metres were also run off and Barbadian hopes in today’s finals will rest on Tristan Evelyn (24.54); Lisa-Ann Barrow (24.82); Joshua Walcott (21.95) and Deon Hope (21.96).
Levi Cadogan and an obviously injured Nicholas Deshong both missed the cut, with 22.24 and 23.09 seconds, respectively.
