ANTHONY FOSTER, Freelance Writer
Holmwood's pair of Bobbie-Gaye Wilkins (left) and Keno Haven (right) finihsed one-two in the 800m final at last weekend's Carifta trials at the National Stadium East Complex. Edwin Allen's Jodiann Richards is centre. Wilkins won in 2:06.24 ahead of Haven 2:06.36 and Richards 2:06.85. - IAN ALLEN
JAMAICA'S WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS gold medallist Bert Cameron was impressed with the top class performances at last weekend's Jamaica Amateur Athletics Association (JAAA) Carifta Trials, held at Stadium East complex.
Cameron said he was pleased to see a lot of youngsters doing their personal best.
"When you go to a track meet and see something like that, you can't really ask for more," he said.
"I believe people are on their way up, peaking at the right time," said Cameron who won the first 400m World Championships title in 45.05 seconds in Helsinki, 23 years ago.
"Some are peaking for different meets like the World Junior Championships, Carifta Games and Boys' & Girls' Championships and it seems like coaches overall, and athletes, are doing a good job," he added.
Cameron made special mention of the Under-20 boys and girls 400m races in which three boys ran sub-47 seconds and two girls did sub-52 seconds.
Allodin Forthergil of G.C. Foster (46.33), Jair Francis of Manchester (46.84) and Tarik Edwards of UWI ( 46.89) were the 400m boys while Holmwood's Sonita Sutherland (51.23) and UTech's Kaliese Spencer (51.56) were the 400m girls.
He also made mention of the 100m Under-20 boys in which four persons, Camperdown's Remaldo Rose (10.29), Kingston College's (KC) Cawayne Jervis ( 10.45), St. Jago's Yohan Blake (10.46), and Jamaica College's Winston Barnes (10.49) went under 10.5.
"The way they performed showed that we are really, really on our way," said Cameron who coaches Wolmer's boys.
St. Jago's Natasha Ruddock was also impressive at the Under-20 level. Ruddock, who won the Under-17 sprint hurdles at Carifta for the past three years, made her first appearance at the Under-20 level and won easily in 13.7 ahead of Immaculate's Kimberly Laing (13.9).
Jamaica College's (JC) Andre Collins won the boys' Under-20 110m hurdles in 14.7 ahead of KC's Kerion Stewart, who was given a similar time.
Kimarley Henry of KC (13.6) took the Under-17 section ahead of Joel White of St. Jago (13.8 ).
Bellefield's Kemoy Campbell (8:58.09) beat Lewisville's Ewan Porter (9:35.66) in the boys' Under-17 3000m final while Vere's Stacey-Ann Bell ( 10.20.45) took the girls' event ahead of Manchester's Neisha Morgan (10.34.93).
Kaleise Spencer had earlier won the 400m hurdles for Under-20 girls in 56.3 ahead of Sherene Pinnock of Edwin Allen ( 57.0). Josef Robertson (52.9) took the boys' event.
Edwin Allen's Jodiann Richards (4:40.19) won the 1500m Under-20 ahead of Bell (4:41.25) while Lenford Adams (3: 59.80) took the boys' event.
Wolmer's Robert Peddler (14.48m) beat Calabar's Nicholas Gordon (14.47m) in the Under-20 boys' triple jump. Shantel Thompson of Vere (1.73m) won the girls' Under-20 high jump; KC's Alain Bailey leapt a personal best 2.10m to win the boys' Under-20 high jump event; Rose-Ann Jones of Vere (5.78m) won the girls' Under-20 long jump; Tarik Edwards (7.30m) won the boys' Under-20 long jump.
The squad to travel to Guadeloupe for the April 14-16 Games was named on Sunday and will be released sometime this week.
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