By Treiston Joseph
Stephan James emerged as a rough diamond at the Carifta Games in Jamaica last weekend when he showed much promise in the 400 metres sprint.
The team landed on home soil last Wednesday around 12 midnight and was provided with transportation from the Athletics Association of Guyana, according to James.
Though James did not medal at the games, he was the only sprinter to qualify for a sprint final in more than six years. He qualified for the under-20 400 metres final with a Personal Best (PB) time of 48.17s and followed up with a fourth place finish in the final this time clocking a slower time of 48.46s.
James also took part in the 200 metres but failed to qualify for the final when he finished in fifth place with a time of 22.58s.
“Well it was good for me, I’m just happy for the experience but I know I could have done better. I just have to put in more work now because those guys out there are good,” James told Stabroek Sport via telephone yesterday.
Both Trevon George and Nathaniel Giddings took a fall in the boy’s under-20 1500 metres final when they got tangled up with other competitors which caused them to finish 8th and 10th respectively while running slower than their routine times of 4:19.44s and 4:38.83s respectively.
While George made the 800 metres finals with a PB time of 1:56.72s, he too like James ran slower in the final with a time of 1:59.60s which was good enough for the 6th position.
Giddings failed to show his usual dominance in the 5000 metres when he placed 13th at the games and turned in a time of 17:33.46s.
On the distaff side, the most experienced campaigner at the Carifta Games among her compatriots, Jevina Straker failed to replicate her performances of the last two years when she struck gold for her country in the under-17 1500 metres.
While Straker competed in the under-20 category at the games for the first time in her career at the prestigious event, she seemingly could not cope with the raised level of competition provided by her Caribbean counterparts as she placed 5th in the 1500 metres turning in a time of 4:55.49s.
Straker also competed in the 800 metres finals, the weaker of her two events, but came in 6th clocking a time of 2:21.02s
Melissa Byass the other female competitor on the team blazed to a PB time 58.97s in the under-17 400 metres qualifiers but failed to qualify for the finals. She later returned in the 800 metres to mirror George’s performance by qualifying for the final in 3rd position with a time of 2:24.03s.
However, while she turned in a PB time of 2:20.68s it was only good enough to secure her the 6th position.
“I’m disappointed with some who had the experience of running on the synthetic track before but I think George and Byass could have done better if they had more experience,” Pamela Phillips, manager of the team told Stabroek Sport.
When questioned about the performance of James and Straker by Stabroek Sport, Phillips stated, “I think James did well especially with his PB time but I was still disappointed because I think he could have given it a bit more in the final.
Jevina probably didn’t do so well since it was her first time in the under-20 category and it was probably difficult for her to cope with.
“The team to me overall did well because there were a lot of PB times so I was still pleased with their performances although I expected more out of them,” she added.
Meanwhile the performances by the athletes at the games saw Guyana going medal-less for the first time since the 2006 edition of the event in Guadeloupe.
