It was double delight for The St Michael Cougars as they celebrated secondary schools athletics supremacy among both the boys and girls at the National Stadium yesterday.
The Martindales Road school not only repeated as boys champions with 310.50 points, but added the girls title in a momentous tie with Christ Church Foundation in the PowerAde Barbados Secondary Schools Athletics Championships (BSSAC).
The boys sealed their triumph with a record-breaking win in the open 4×400-metre relay as the quartet of Nathan Fergusson, Kyle Gale, birthday boy Matthew Clarke and anchor Antoni Hoyte-Small combined for a sizzling 3:11.95 minutes.
Brandon Hoyte, Delano Wickham, Josiah Atkins and Ondre Callender finished second for Foundation, who ended on 284 points, with Harrison College (263.50) third.
The pint-sized Fergusson was at the heart of St Michael’s sterling performance.
He created a stir by upstaging BSSAC record-holder and double CARIFTA gold medallist Rasheeme Griffith (51.09) of Harrison College to win the Under-20 Boys’ 400m hurdles in 50.97 seconds.
Gale also played a key role, coming with a late run to take the Under-17 Boys’ 400-metre hurdles in 54.06 seconds, going under the 55.50 CARIFTA qualifying standard in this event, as well as in the flat 400.
Darian Clarke (22.56) also won the Under-17 Boys’ 200, just holding off Jean-Pierre Hinds (22.62), while Antonio Farrell and Jonathan Miller put St Michael further ahead, clearing 2.00 metres and 1.88 to take the top two positions in the Under-20 Boys’ high jump.
Miller also won the triple jump, but was denied a BSSAC record as his winning hop, skip and jump of 15.42 metres was deemed to be wind-aided.
Harrison College’s Triston Gibbons didn’t have any such worries as he broke his own Under-20 Boys’ shot put record of 18.63 metres, set in the Esther Maynard Zone, with a heave of 18.68 metres.
Multi-eventer Seth Edwards surpassed the CARIFTA qualifying standard of 15.50 metres with a put of 15.80 metres for the silver medal.
But he came up big when Foundation were threatening to cut into St Michael’s lead by winning the overall eight-event Open Boys’ pentathlon with 3 584 points.  Â
Earlier, Foundation’s Daniel Duncan (60.95) and Kobe Hutson (52.69) triumphed in Under-13 and Under-15 Boys’ 400 metres. Atkins (21.62) also completed the Under-20 Boys’ sprint double, edging CARIFTA-bound Clarke (21.70) on the line.
Duncan was also a gold medallist in the long jump with a leap of 5.09 metres while Nathan Crawford-Wallis leapt 1.89 metres to win the Under-17 Boys’ high jump for Foundation.
Other good performances came from Harrison College’s triple winner Caleb Massiah. He took the Junior Boys’ javelin (41.31m) and won the Junior Boys’ 300 metres hurdles in 41.11 seconds and the long jump with a leap of 5.80 metres.
Victor ludorum Jonathan Jones, after easily winning the 5 000 in 17:50.55 minutes from his HC schoolmate Rio Williams (17:55.63), came back to take the Under-20 Boys’ 800 in 1:56.92, just holding off Coleridge & Parry’s fast-finishing Tafari Bishop (1:57.05).
HC’s Zion Hill, with 61.92 metres, took the Under-20 Boys’ javelin, while St Leonard’s Tyjah Bishop (13.09) got gold in the Under-13 Boys’ 100.
The Lodge’s Dejuan Walcott won the Under-17 Boys’ triple jump with 14.37 metres, surpassing the CARIFTA standard of 14.00 metres. His schoolmate Makhaya Campbell outsprinted the Junior Boys over the last 100 metres of their 1 500 to win in 4:48.37 minutes.
QC’s duo Kevon Hinds (13.38) and Nicholas Grimes (13.23) were the top two in the Under-17 Boys’ shot put, while schoolmate Samuel Alkins (1:59.88) captured gold in the Under-17 Boys’ 800 and Sean Raphael (11.64) also prevailed in the Under-15 Boys’ 100 for QC. (EZS)
