Report and photos by Treiston Joseph
With 10 metres to go Upper Demerara/Kwakwani’s (District 10) Daniel Williams dropped his elbows, went into cruise control and still broke the Boys Under-18 100m record on day four of the National School Championships on Wednesday at the National Track and Field Centre, Leonora.
There was no competition for Williams as he clocked a new record of 10.65s; not even the 6’2” New Amsterdam behemoth Jermaine King, who won silver at the South American Youth Championships just about a month ago, could stop him.
Other than the first 30 metres that Williams admitted to having a “bad start” the race was a ‘walk in the park’ and King fell to third with Umkosi Vancooten (South Georgetown) taking second in 10.99s. King recorded a time of 11.18s.
Meanwhile, Upper Demerara/Kwakwani (District 10) took over the lead from Corentyne after 53 finals in the track and field championship and now have a commanding lead, ending day four on 326 points.
Host district West Demerara (District Three) moved up to second on 190 points, while Corentyne (District Six), the early leaders, fell to third on 173.5 point.
The other hot race of the day was between Anfernee Headecker (South Georgetown) and Samuel Lynch (North Georgetown) in the Boys Under-20 800m final.
Headecker came out the victor between the two good friends, utilising his opening speed to take the race from Lynch, who had to make up too much distance and didn’t have the leg power on the day to do so as Headecker clocked 1:55.46s.
Lynch clocked 2:01.05s for silver, while Laurindo Prince (New Amsterdam) finished with the bronze medal in a time of 2:03.11s.
East Georgetown’s (District 12) Daniel Melville might be a bit upset with his gold medal 800m performance in the Boys Under-16 category after recording a time of 2:00.03s, which is just off the record that stands at 2:00.01s and is held by Ornesto Thomas of East Coast (District 4).
Ronell Newton (Upper Demerara/Kwakwani) was second with a time of 2:00.93s, while Darel Davis (Corentyne) was third in 2:05.45s.
Murphy Nash of Upper Demerara/Kwakwani is the new record holder of the Boys Under-16 800m with a time of 2:01.43s to erase the old mark of 2:04.5s that was held by Jomal Johnson of District 10.
Upper Demerara/Kwakwani’s Adessa Albert is also a new record holder in the Girls Under-10 Long Jump with a new mark of 4.03m to erase the old one of 3.89 m, previously held by her district mate Celene Webb.
Meanwhile, hometown girl, Joanna Archer (West Demerara), burst down in tears after her Under-18 800m final gold medal run because she did not break the record that is set at 2:20.4s. Archer clocked a time of 2:23.27s.
Other gold medal performances on the day were:
West Demerara’s Kezra Murray- Girls 800m U-20 (2:26.69s)
Upper Demerara/Kwakwani’s Deshanna Skeete- Girls U-16 100m (12.21s)
South Georgetown’s Wesley Tyndall- Boys U-14 100m (11.75s)
Upper Demerara/Kwakwani’s Jonathan Copeland- Boys U-18 discuss throw (40.31m).
The track and field championships will continue for the remainder of the week at the Leonora facility.
