-Phillip Persaud, Ianna Graham and Treiston Joseph run unbeaten
By Marlon Munroe
Nisa Allen exploded yesterday to leave her challengers in the dust when she won the three sprint top spots yesterday in the North Georgetown Inter Zone athletics track meet yesterday at the Camp Ayanganna ground.
However, the win that would have been the sweetest was the 400m where she beat part-favourite Shannah Thornhill into a distant second. She ran a powerful 59.19s after she executed every phase of her race well and then outsprinted Thornhill from the 250m mark. Thornhill registered a time of 1:03.8s.
Candya Glasgow was third.
In the 100m she ran to victory in a time of 12.3s, the time that Brickdam Secondary’s Ianna Graham clocked to win her 100m race, ahead of Kim Chan and Keanna Gordan. Allen returned in the half lap sprint event to beat Thornhill (28.04) into second in a time of 26.09s with Juanita Hooper coming in third.
Additionally, Phillip Persaud, Graham and Trieiston Joseph ran undefeated yesterday.
Further, the showdown between Ashley Tasher and Shemaine Daniels ended in Tasher avenging her losses to Daniels in the 100m and 400m races by pipping Daniels on the line in the 200m.
Earlier in the morning the air was rife with anticipation and the curtain raiser where Jonathan Fagundes won the under-20 5000m race only increased the tension of what was to come. Chimaine Collins (13.4s) created the first upset of the day in the under-12 100m when she convincingly beat Jevina Sampson; Montel Massiah (13.3s) won the boys category and Jude Eversly of zone one got second.
Another upset came when Rondel Gibbons, running out of lane one, beat Diquan Vancooten, the athlete favoured to win the 400m, and Arinze Chance into submission. And in a show of good sportsmanship Chance and Vancooten shook his hand to congratulate him on his win.
The race for the most part was between Chance and Vancooten but it was at the start of the homestretch that Gibbons came into contention. His power down the stretch made the two recognized athletes work harder before he crossed the line in a time of 1:09s; Chance was second with 1:02.3s and Vancooten third who clocked 1:05.06s.
In the under-14 Daniels got out of the blocks hard and by the end of the drive phase had already gained ground on Tasher, who had an early lead, to beat her convincingly down to the line in a time of 12.6s. Her identical twin sister Shaquan (12.72s) also took some revenge of her own to beat Tasher (12.78s) into third.
Persaud, like he did on day two of the inter schools championship, exploded out of the blocks and none of his other competitors had any answer for his surge. He recorded a time of 12.1s with Malcolm Wills, who he narrowly beat in the 200m later in the afternoon, coming second and Gibbons third.
Many felt that Wills won the 200m but Persaud was adjudged the winner in a time of 26.53 with Wills shaving the line with a time of 26.54s. In the under-16 boys 100m, national school record, after a brief hiatus from the sport, reclaimed his supremacy when he outclassed his opponents from whistle to wire in a time of 11.3s ahead of Roel Marciano and Devon Abrams.
However, in the 200m Abrams upstaged the positioning when he clocked 24.70 for first position with Marciano (25.02s) coming second and Naughton (25.09s) finished third. On the distaff side Graham ran unchallenged in the 100m (12.3s), 200m (27.27s) and the 400m (1:08.9).
Treiston Joseph may not have broken the uner-20 100m record but he won the sprint double easily in times of 10.8s and 22.01 for the 100m and 200m respectively. Philip Drayton continued to rule the roost in the 400m event.
At the start of that race Drayton tactically put the entire field under pressure when he false started. Afterwards, he made up the stagger on his competitors running out of lane three and led the race after 120m with the only resistance coming from Joshua Griffith and Eon Campbell. Drayton ran a time of 50.5s with Griffith finishing second with a time of 51.9s and Campbell in third with a time of 53.4s.
