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Juniors continue to surge on World stage

Dexter Lee (right) and Nickel Ashmeade Posing with the national flag after competing in the 100 metres at the World Youth Championships in Ostrava, Czech Republic.Winning gold and silver medals, respectively.

Junior track and field continued to strengthen in 2007 in both quality and depth. Top performers and performances are not concentrated in any single corner of the island, or coming from any one or two directions. This was evident from the first development meet of the year and continued through to the World Youth Championships where our athletes won nine medals - two gold, five silver and two bronze to finish in sixth position on both the medal tally and points tally with 70 points.

In short order, names such as Yohan Blake, Ramon McKenzie, Dexter Lee and Misha-Gaye DaCosta, to mention a few, have become household names.

Annually, two meets showcase the quality of Jamaica’s junior athletes; Boys and Girls Championships and the Carifta Games. It’s always easy to see the standard that the island has to offer not only for that particular year but for the next ten years! Below is a synopsis of the both meets:

2007 Grace Kennedy Boys and Girls Champs review

Day One

Two records were broken on the opening day as Vere Technical and Wolmer's Boys jumped ahead.

Records were set by Vere's Kimberly Williams who leapt 13.52 metres in the triple jump Open and Calabar's Ramone McKenzie who ran 21.11 seconds in the boys' Class Two 200m.

Williams' jump beat the previous mark of 13.43m held by former Meadowbrook jumper Shelly-Ann Gallimore since 1999. Holmwood's Salcia Slack was second with a leap of 12.96m while St. Jago's Melissa Ogbourne was third with 12.64m.
Day Two

Deborah Rose threw 12.57 metres for the new record in the Shot Put Open to beat Vere's Keniesha Throughsingh (12.00m) and Latanya Nation (11.54m).

 Holmwood’s m Salcia Slack's set a new Class Two long jump record with 6.11m to beat Elva Goulbourne of Dinthill and St. Jago's Tamara Francis's mark of 6.02m set in 1997 and 2004, respectively.

Waqar DaCosta's of Jamaica College record came in the boys' Class Three 800m with a brilliant 1:58.06 run. He ran alone from gun to tape to erase the old mark of 1:58.24 set by Theon O'Connor since 2003.

Day Three

St. Jago High's Yohan Blake confirmed his class with a good win over two-time defending champion Remaldo Rose of Camperdown in the class one 100m dash. Blake ran a record 10.21 while Rose ran 10.43 for second. Former St. George's College sprinter Tesfa Latty set the old mark, 10.24, in 2003.

Holmwood's Schillonie Calvert won the girls' Class One event in 11.38 seconds ahead of her teammate, Anastasia Le-Roy (11.41).

Holmwood’s Taneisha Blair hurled the javelin 47.85 metres for her third consecutive title, while erasing the national junior record of 47.49m and the Champs mark of 46.62. Blair held both records.

Kingston College’s Keiron Stewart ran 13.69 seconds in the Class One boys 110m hurdles, bettered his own national junior record of 13.71 and the Champs record of 13.79, previously held by Dwight Thomas of Calabar.

Stewart also took the boys' 400m hurdles in 51.42.

Other 100m champions were Dexter Lee of Herbert Morrison (10.41 - Class 2); Munro's Rolando Reid (11.05 - Class 3); and girls - Danielle Jeffrey of Immaculate (11.64 - Class 2); Antonique Campbell of Herbert Morrison (11.89 - Class 3); Cadene Copeland of Wolmer's (12.11 - Class 4).

Day Four

Calabar dethroned Kingston College (KC) while Holmwood Technical recorded their fifth straight girls' title.

KC's Keiron Stewart ran 13.53 to break his own national junior record of 13.69, which he set in the preliminary round of the 110m hurdles.

Blake won the 200m in 20.62 to add to his 100m record run of 10.21. In Class Two, McKenzie won the 200m in 20.89 and the 400m in 47.24 - both record times.

Jeffery won the Class Two 200m in 23.65, adding to her 100m (11.64), while Campbell took the Class Three girls' 200m in 24.14 and the 100m (11.89).

St. Jago's Rikor Hylton took the boys' class one 400m in 46.28 seconds ahead of Calabar's Garfield German (46.63).

In the other girls' 400m events, Manchester’s Shana-Gaye Tracey (53.33) beat Latoya McDermott of St. Andrew (53.48) and her teammate, Deneisha Morris (54.18), while St. Jago's Samantha Woodburn (55.98) took Class Three ahead of Holmwood's Yanique Ellington (56.09). Tracey won the 400m hurdles on Friday in 57.90

Waqar DaCosta (50.14) took the Class Three boys' event ahead of St. George's Jermaine Fyffe (50.46). He also won the 800m in 2:01.17.

In the sprint hurdles, St. Jago's World Youth silver medalist Natasha Ruddock made an impressive entrance to Class One by taking victory in 14.02 ahead of Shanekia Hall of (St. Hugh's (14.21) while Class Two went to Shermaine Williams of Alpha (13.81). The Class Three 80m event was won by Lanice Hall of Vere (11.58) while the Class Four 70m event went to Chrisdale McCarthy in a personal best 10.81.

Adding to Stewart's Class One victory, KC swept the sprint hurdles with Kimarley Henry (14.16) and Lemmar Wilson (13.26) taking the Class Two 110m and Class Three 100m events, respectively.

Misha-Gaye DaCosta of Immaculate (1.80m) won the girls' Class Two high jump, while Ramone Berch of JC threw 15.92m to add the boys' Class One shot put to his discus title.

Calabar took  their first title in 10 years, while Holmwood won five straight.

Calabar took the Championship title with 273.5 points, ahead of KC (200), Jamaica College (161), Wolmer's (137.5), and St. Jago (120). Herbert Morrison (64), St. George's College (51.5), Munro College (45), Camperdown (41), and Bridgeport (30) complete the boys top 10.

In the girls section, Holmwood topped the field with 353.5 points, ahead of Vere (232), Manchester (226), Edwin Allen (217), and St. Jago (168.5). St. Andrew (91.5), Immaculate (77.5), Wolmer's (71), STETHS (42.5) and Alpha (42.5) complete the top 10.

Jamaica dominate Junior Carifta Games yet again

Ramone McKenzie  and  Latoya McDermott

Jamaica’s youngsters again emphasized their superiority over regional rivals with a commanding victory at the 36^th CARIFTA Games held in Providenciales, Turks & Caicos Islands.

The Jamaicans strode colossally to a 23^rd consecutive hold on the CARIFTA Games title with a tremendous haul of 76 medals, highlighted by sprint ace Yohan Blake’s smashing new 100-metre record 10.11 in the Boys’ Under-20 100 metres.

Jamaica tallied 36 gold, 28 silver and 12 bronze medals and fittingly closed the three-day meet with a superb sweep of all the 1600-metre relays, including a gripping championship record run in the Under-20 Boys’ event.

With 200-metre gold medallist Ramone McKenzie on the final leg, the Jamaicans lowered their own meet record to three minutes 07.01, edging Trinidad and Tobago (3:01.11) by a mere 0.10 seconds for the gold medal.

Jamaica’s Under-20 girls won their 4X400-metre run in 3:36.26 and their Under-17 boys and girls won theirs with authority in 3:16.31 and 3:43.79, respectively.

The Jamaicans advertised their sprint power by sweeping three of the half-lap dashes.

McKenzie posted a splendid 20.58 to land the Boys’ Under-20 200 metres and his team-mate Dexter Lee was unstoppable in his 200-metre run, clocking a championship record 21.09, his second gold medal and meet-best here.

Lee had won the 100 metres in 10.34 seconds and his half-lap clocking erased the imposing previous Under-17 CARIFTA record of 21.12 by world junior record holder Usain Bolt in 2002.

Antonique Campbell took the Girls’ Under-17 event in 23.78.

Overwhelmingly dominant over the years in the sprint hurdles, Jamaica had to settle for just two gold medals in the four events.

Barbadian ace Ryan Brathwaite of Barbados won the Boys’ 110-metre hurdles for the second year in a row in a championship record 13.42, edging Jamaican Kieron Stewart while lowering his own record.

He had earlier sped to 13.65 seconds in the preliminaries.

Brathwaite made up the ground quickly after a slow start in the final to motor past Stewart, who finished second in 13.49, with Jamaican Andre Collins (13.85) third.

Jamaica had better success in the Boy’s Under-17 event sprint hurdles as Kimarly Henry easily won the 100-metre event with a time of 13.28.

The Jamaicans got their other hurdles triumph through Shermaine Williams in the Under-20 Girls’ 100 in 13.51, topping her team-mate Natasha Ruddock (13.95).

In the Girls’ Under 17 event, Martinique’s Jessica Alcan used her personal best 13.67 to upset Jamaican Lanice Hall (14.19).

Jamaica kept piling on the records on the final day of competition as a new mark was set in the Men’s Under 20 shot put that saw defending champion Raymond Brown heave a superb 18.27 metres to set a new championship mark.

Jamaica copped 800-metre wins through Under-20 star Keno Heaven (2:11.66) over her team-mate Venessa Boyd (2:12.16), while 1500-metre champion Natoya Goule repeated as Under-17 champion in 2:11.68, defeating Jessica James (2:14.89).

It was Goule’s sixth CARIFTA gold medal having also done the 800/1500-metre double back-to-back years 2005 and 2006. 

After posting dominating performances at the Junior Pan American Championships and the World Youth Championships, here are the top performer/performances posted on the IAAF Junior listing.

Male

• Yohan Blake – 10.11, 20.62

• Dexter Lee – 10.23

• Ramon McKenzie – 20.58

• Keiron Stewart – 13.49

• 4x100m – 39.47

• 4x400m – 4:06.17

Female

• Samantha Henry – 11.21, 22.84

• Schillone Calvert – 11.35, 23.23

• Bobby-Gaye Wilkins – 51.72

• Francine Simpson – 6.51m

• 4x100m – 44.41 Edwin Allen

• 4x400m – 3:35.36

Top performer/performances on the IAAF Youth list.

Male

• Dexter Lee – 10.33, 21.09

• Nickel Ashmeade – 10.39, 20.76

• Darrion Bent – 10.59

• Jermaine Brown – 21.25

• Lemmar Wilson – 13.94

• Dwayne Exdol – 52.92

• Tarik Batchelor – 7.61m

 Female

• Kedesha Simpson – 11.60

• Danielle Jeffery – 11.64, 23.65

• Jura Levy -11.64

• Antonique Campbell – 23.78

• Shana-Gaye Tracey – 53.33, 57.74

• Latoya McDermot – 53.48

• Misha-Gaye DaCosta – 1.84m