At the end of Day IV (Friday, 22 July), countries of the Caribbean region stood at 6 medals on the overall count at the IAAF World Under-50 Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland.
Jamaica, on its own, the traditional region leader in the sport, have mined 4 for 7th spot on the tables, while Trinidad & Tobago and Barbados are locked on one each in 26th position along with six other nations.
The Jamaica tally is headed by a gold from Tiffany James in the 400m and her second time at the global event. James, who did not make it past the semifinals at the 2014 staging in Eugene, Oregon, is a student from the Mico College University, whose program is administered by long time internationally exposed coach, Raymond ‘’KC’’ Graham. The specialist hurdles coach, is in Bydgoszcz as a journalist reporting for a major daily newspaper.
A silver medal was taken in the hurdles equivalent by Shannon Kalawan from the mid island, Michael Dyke – coached Edwin Allen High School and bronze medals went to Nigel Ellis in the 200m and his high schoolmate at St. Elizabeth Technical, Junelle Bromfield, in the 400m. Ellis, who ran a still wotld under-20 leading 10.16 at the Carifta Games in March, would have missed the opportunity of a higher ranking prize, having false started in the 100m at the trials to select the team. Efforts to get the administration to give him the lane at the championships, were ignored, as it was felt that it would be unfair to an athlete who followed all the given guidelines for selection.
Barbados’ Marlon Burke and Trini standout, Khalifa St. Fort were the scorers of their country’s single medal – a bronze in their respective 100m races. St. Fort is coached by the Trinidadian sprint icon, turned international broadcaster, Ato Boldon.
