media_artricles :: 2015

Sizzling sprints

St Fort, Hislop, Farinha shine at Junior Champs

Khalifa St Fort scored a “century” on debut, at the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Port of Spain, yesterday. Competing for the first time in Trinidad and Tobago, the American-born sprinter was a runaway winner in the NGC-NAAA National Junior Track and Field Championship girls’ under-18 100 metres final.

Halfway through the race, St Fort and Speed Factory’s Jendayi Noel were level. But it was all St Fort in the second half of the century, the Florida-based athlete pulling away from Noel to win in 11.87 seconds. Noel picked up silver in 12.12.

St Fort, whose mother is Trinidadian, is bidding for selection on the T&T team for the July 15-19 IAAF World Youth Championships in Cali, Colombia.

Abilene’s Jonathan Farinha had things all his own way in the boys’ under-20 100m final, winning in 10.42 seconds, from Dovers’ Joash Huggins (10.68).

Akanni Hislop stopped the clock at 10.48 seconds to strike gold in the boys’ under-18 100m dash. The Zenith sprinter’s clocking was well inside the 10.60 World Youth qualifying standard.

There were also qualifying performances from Aaron Lewis and Kenejah Williams.

Lewis recorded victory in the boys’ under-20 110m hurdles. The Zenith athlete got to the line in 13.90 seconds, one-tenth of a second faster than the 14.00 Pan Am Juniors standard.

Williams threw 17.62 metres in round four to secure gold in the boys’ under-20 shot put. The Falcons athlete bettered the 17.60m Pan Am Juniors qualifying distance by a couple centimetres.

Rebirth’s Andwuelle Wright cleared the 7.30m Pan Am Juniors standard in the opening round of the boys’ under-20 long jump. However, his 7.40m leap was aided by an illegal 3.1 metres per second following wind. Wright’s best legal jump in the competition was 7.03m, into a 3.2 headwind.

Tyriq Horsford was outstanding in the boys’ under-16 javelin, the Zenith athlete landing the spear 70.43m to whip his rivals. Horsford also topped the discus in his age-group, taking gold with a 54.66m throw.

Jacob St Clair gave a gutsy performance in the boys’ under-18 400m final. Drawn in lane four, the Abilene quartermiler quickly made up the stagger on Simplex’s Kareem La Gendre, in five. But halfway up the back straight, St Clair clutched his left hamstring, and slowed considerably. He accelerated again, and came off the final turn ahead of his rivals.

St Clair struggled coming home, but held on for the win in 48.75 seconds with Terry Frederick, of Point Fortin New Jets placing second in 49.03.

Thyla-Marie Scott got the better of her Memphis Pioneers teammate, Jeminise Parris in a tight girls’ under-20 400m contest. Scott snatched gold in 56.23 seconds, while Parris clocked 56.25 to earn silver. Kafi Ottley (56.91) completed a Memphis sweep of the medals.

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