Jamaica brilliant in the field at Carifta

While Jamaica’s young athletes, led by Shanoya Douglas, created waves on the track at the just-concluded Carifta Games in St George’s, Grenada, there were indeed outstanding performances in the field.

Leading the charge was Joseph Salmon, fresh off his record-breaking performance in the Class One discus a few days earlier at the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Athletics Championships, he continued that good form in taking gold in the boys’ Under-20 event with a distance of 65.38 metres. He also got silver in the Under-20 shot put with a second-place finish and a heave of 18.17m.

Last year’s Under-17 athlete, Kamari Kennedy, in his first year in the Under-20 division, pocketed silver with a mark of 55.39m.

In the boys’ triple jump, Joshua Patrick grabbed gold with a winning leap of 14.59m, while teammate Talshawn Edwards finished second for silver with 14.35m. Edwards was also second in the long jump with a distance of 6.71m.

Michael Andre Edwards was also in top form in the field with gold and silver in the Under-20 boys’ triple and long jump. He finished first in the former with a distance of 15.54m, and second in the latter with 7.47m.

Joshua Williams and Michael Neil both cleared 2.00m for silver and bronze respectively in the boys’ Under-20 high jump, the same height cleared by the winner, David Hall of Turks and Caicos, who gave his country gold – their only medal of the games.

Undoubtedly, the star performer for Jamaica on the female side was Able Mills. Mills, who is now studying overseas, picked up two gold medals, winning the girls’ Under-20 discus with a throw of 53.85m and the shot put with a personal best of 15.27m.

There were also gold medals for Zavien Bernard in the high jump and Shamanda Wilmot in the javelin throw. Bernard, competing in the girls’ Under-20 high jump, cleared 1.78m for gold, while Wilmot captured gold in the girls’ Under-17 javelin on her final attempt with 46.39m.