From Rawle Toney
at Albion
Day Two of the National Schools Championships at the Albion Community Development Centre ground, ended with defending track and field champions Upper Demerara/Kwakwani (District No. 10) leading the title hunt with 187 points after the completion of 42 events.
As expected, their main rivals, North Georgetown (District No. 11) are in hot pursuit on 172 points.
District No. 15, (New Amsterdam) is in third place followed by Corentyne (135 points), Bartica (128) East Coast Demerara (126) and West Coast Berbice (115).
None of the other districts have gotten past the 100 points mark.
But while there were some invigorating field and track events, the final of the boys, U20 100 metres was the show stopper.
There was plenty of hype leading into the boys’ U20 100-metre final with bets placed almost equally on Chaves Ageday and national champion Treiston Joseph.
Having both won their respective heats the stage was set for the showdown and even though the race was run under poor lighting conditions, it certainly lived up to all expectations.
Ageday convincingly defeated Joseph, clocking 10.7 seconds and almost equalling the national record of 10.6 seconds held by Julian Edmonds of North Georgetown, set in 1992 in Linden. District 15’s Okeme Stuart was second running 10.9 seconds and Joseph third (11.3 seconds), his last race as a junior. Meanwhile, the female U20 100 metres race was a close call for the judges as Roxanne Rigby of New Amsterdam (12.4 seconds) had to dip to beat North Georgetown’s Neisa Allen (12.5 seconds) while Upper Demerara’s Keyandre Zephyr was third.
District 15’s Cortez Fraser wowed the crowed with his subliminal speed in the boys’ U16 100-metre final as he stormed to a comfortable win in 11.1 seconds equalling Joseph’s record set at the 2005 championships at the same venue.
Carl Tudor of West Demerara was second (11.2s) and Chris Hyderkhan (11.6s) of South Georgetown, third.
Continuing with the evening’s already upsetting mode, North Georgetown’s Ianna Graham was dethroned in the U-16 girls’ 100-metre final.
The race was won by Tiffany Carto of South Georgetown who clocked 12.9 seconds.
Graham 13.0s was second while New Amsterdam’s Latania Ceasar was third in 13.1 seconds.
Deja Smartt of District No. 4, (East Coast Demerara) won the U14 event ahead of South Georgetown’s Shonnett Freeman and Upper Demerara’s Khaleria Harris.
East Georgetown’s Yohance Hendricks (12.4 seconds) won the boys U14 race ahead of Lloyd Witherspoon (12.6) and Osafa Profitt.
Today, the athletes will again attempt to thrill the crowd as they compete in the 200-metre events.
The day’s proceedings are expected to start with the 800-metre races which would officially round off the events slotted for day two since poor lights forced officials to call it a day yesterday a bit earlier.
