It was a fantastic first day on the track for the 53rd Intercol Track & Field and Cheerleading Championships at the University of the West Indies’ (UWI) Usain Bolt Track, with blistering performances from University of Technology’s (UTECH) Andrew Fisher and UWI’s Rushell Clayton in the men’s 100m and women’s 400m hurdles finals respectively.
Fisher dominated a quality field to post a personal best of 10.11 seconds, way ahead of Everton Clarke of GC Foster College in second with 10.30 and UWI’s Jason Young in 10.31 seconds. Delano Williams of UWI clocked a mere 10.40 seconds to finish fourth. Elaine Thompson of UTech won the women's 100m in 11.49 ahead of Audra Segree of GC Foster College 11.54 and Kedisha Dallas, also of GC Foster College in 11.69
There were fireworks too, in the finals of the women’s 400m hurdles, with UWI’s Rushell Clayton setting a new Intercol record of 56.41 seconds to finish ahead of UTech’s Janieve Russell who also went under the previous record with 56.50 and Kimone Green of Mico University College in 58.96. UTech’s Jamie Demns captured the men’s equivalent in 52.12 seconds ahead of Evon Duhaney of GC Foster College 53.94 and Sherwin Jackson of UWI 56.95.
The other track results saw Ricardo Cunningham of UTech winning the men’s 800m in a record 1:48.65 ahead of Jermia Riley of GC Foster College 1:49.50. Samantha James of UTECH who took the crown in the female equivalent with a time of 2:14.75 ahead of Roxcine Salmon of GC Foster College in 2:16.21.
The women’s 3000m was won by Salmon in 11:27.90 while her teammate Webster Chung won the men’s 3000m steeplechase in a time of 9:47.57 seconds.
In the field, the men’s discus took center stage with current World Leader Fredrick Dacres of UWI continued his impressive form, throwing a winning mark of 61.71m. Dacres threw the world leading mark of 66.75 meters at the Texas Relays only a week ago. Raymond Brown of GC Foster College 47.34m and Oshane Harris of UWI 47.32m finished 2nd and 3rd respectively.
“I wasn’t at my best today but under the circumstances I am just happy for the win and valuable points for UWI. Hopefully I will get closer to the national record next time,” Dacres said.
In other results from the field, Genneva Greaves captured the women’s shot put final with a throw of 15.13m while UWI’s captain Jelani Bogle took the men’s triple jump with an impressive leap of 15.60m. Israel Ramsay of UTech won the women's long jump with 5.86m, just ahead of Trudy McCalla of GC Foster College with 5.81m
After 7 finals, UWI lead the men's section 76 points, just ahead of GC Foster College 74, UTech 67, Excelsior Community College 20 and Mico University College 5.5. On the female side, GC Foster College hold the early advantage, leading the way with 65 points ahead of UTech 60, UWI 42, Mico University College 11 and College of Agriculture Science 9.
The championships will be decided on Saturday, April 5, with Great Britain sprinter Delano Williams, representing UWI, set to compete in the 200m and teammate Hansle Parchment is ready to contest the 110m hurdles.
The day’s action will also see action in the 400m finals for male and female with the sprint relays set aside to round out the action.
Saturday will also see the Cheerleading Competition getting underway, with action set to begin at3:50pm. Exceptional displays are expected from the carefully choreographed routines filled with athleticism and skill.
