-Caesar, Samuels, Phillips, Bright shine on day one
By Treiston Joseph
Guyana kicked off their title defence of their Inter Guiana Goodwill Games track and field title in fine fashion on Friday evening at the National Track and Field Centre, Leonora.
At the end of day one and 13 events Guyana led by 64 points (amassing 173 points to Suriname’s 109 points).
Compton Caesar led the way for Guyana in the men’s 100 metres, using a blistering start to run away with the win in a time of 10.57 seconds.
Guyana’s Tyrell Peters was second in the event (10.69 seconds) and had to do some catching up in the final 30 metres of the race to give the host the top two spots. Asanatiba Ifmorel was third in the event for Suriname with a time of 10.88 seconds.
Kenisha Phillips was equally up to the challenge in the female 100 metres clocking 11.98 seconds to win the event ahead of team mate Onasha Rogers who ran 12.18 seconds for second. Sabrina Menso of Suriname was third with a time of 12.80 seconds.
Switching to 400 metres action, Avon Samuels (58.09 seconds) of Guyana was impressive in blowing away the field to finish comfortably ahead of her competition. Samuels’ teammate Deshana Skeete Guyana was second in one minute, 01.33 seconds while Davinia Asantiba of Suriname was third in one minute, 08.69 seconds.
However, the males did not fear so well in the 400 metres as Miguel Shepper of Suriname won the event in 49.07s, finishing ahead of Guyana’s Laurindo Prince and Stayon Wilson who clocked 49.42s and 49.63s for second and third respectively.
Meanwhile Carifta silver medalist from Guyana, Chantoba Bright was in class by herself jumping away with the female triple jump with a distance of 12.46 metres.
Joanna Archer and Kezra Murry of Guyana swept the top two spots in the female 1500 metres with times of five minutes, 23.14 seconds and five minutes, 25.09 seconds respectively to put Guyana in a stronger position on day one. Sefanja Wielsen of Suriname ran five minutes, 34.97s for third.
Guyana also took the top two spots in the male 1500 metres with Odwin Tudor and Anfernee Headecker running four minutes 11.92 seconds and four minutes, 16.31 seconds, respectively while Surinamese Gilberto Aloeboetoe was third in four minutes, 32.18 seconds.
Tabitha Bowman won the female 3000 metres for Guyana in a time of 11 minutes, 49 seconds. while Andriska Mickle and Irie Cadogan were the only two females in the female javelin throw and recorded distances of 32.80 metres and 20.39 metres respectively.
Pika Dave of Suriname won the boy’s high jump with a leap of 1.95 metres while Donnafieve Pobosie of Suriname replicated the feat in the female version of the event with a leap of 1.55 metres.
Tramaine Beckles with a throw of 63.38 metres and Jamaine Simmons with a throw of 49.98 metres took the top two spots for Guyana in the male javelin event.
However, to cap off the night’s action Guyana won both the male and female 4×100 metres events in times of 42.62s and 49.63s respectively.
Action in the event will continue today at the Leonora Stadium from 16:00h
