By Marlon Munroe
The gauntlet has been thrown down and the gloves have all come off and so today’s North Georgetown’s Inter Zone track and field championships is expected to sizzle at the Camp Ayanganna ground.
After three days of intense rivalry, today will be the day that really counts as athletes challenge to make the final roster of District 11’s team that will compete in the 49th Guyana Teachers’ Union/ Ministry of Education Track and Field and Swimming Championships from November 9-13 at Albion.
Today, spectators should see some epic battles and some athletics pundits have already dipped in to point out their favourite athletes for particular races.
Many will be turning out tomorrow to put all debates and doubts to rest as the contest between Bishops’ High School’s (BHS) Phillip Persaud and Diquan Vancooten, of St. John’s College, imminently looms in the under-14 category.
The dark horse will always remain prominent school’s champion Arinze Chance who was totally outclassed by the two athletes.
On Tuesday, Persaud convincingly beat Vancooten in the 100m and 200m but Persaud lost the half lap event on a technicality and was scratched from winner’s row.
Subsequently, a rematch was set up for today and many pundits feel that Persaud will comfortably win the 100m because of his quick reaction, which he has shown on day two, and great acceleration.
However, they also feel that Vancooten will get his revenge in the 200m especially if he works hard coming off the turn. Vancooten has been relying too much on his finishing kick down the straight and this can prove counter productive against Persaud who powers off the turn and continues down the home stretch.
Therefore the safest bet will be a photo finish and officials will have to more alert than the previous days. Vancooten is touted to win the 400m especially since he executes his phases of the race to the tee.
On the distaff side someone’s ‘O’ will have to go when BHS’s Ashley Tasher and Richard Ishmael’s (RI) Shemaine Daniels clash in the sprint treble. Both athletes in their various zones beat their opponents handsomely but Tasher looked the more lethal and stronger of the two athletes.
Technically, Tasher is the better athlete and she is more relaxed when she runs. However, Daniels is strong and has heart and will be looking for revenge for her identical twin Shaquan of St. John’s College who Tasher beat into second in the three events on day two.
The male under-16 100m at the moment seems wide open with some thinking that the resurfaced national under-14 100m record holder Kareem Naughton has come to make up for lost times. In the female version of the race Brickdam Secondary School’s Ayanna Graham is expected to easily sprint away with the 100m, 200m and 400m races.
In the female under-20 sprints St. John’s College’s Nisa Allen commandingly romped to victory. Allen has the advantage over St. Stanislaus College athlete Shannah Thornhill who also won the three sprint events, because Thornhill is a 400m and 800m athlete and Allen, the better 100m and 200m athlete.
Thornhill has been competing in the 100m and 200m races to improve her timings in the 400m race since the one lap event has different phases of distribution. Allen might also possibly be regarded to win the 400m especially since she is more explosive and is faster in her last 200m. Philip Drayton is the best contender to win the 400m.
Guyana’s junior champ Treiston Joseph of the Government Technical Institute (GTI) has his eyes set on breaking the national school record of 10.6 seconds set by Julian Edmonds in 1992. He said last Monday that the record will be broken and he will not be easing up after he thinks that he has the race won at the 75th metre.
The championships start at 09:30 hours.
