Guyana’s athletes and swimmers experienced mixed fortunes on the track and in the pool yesterday at the ongoing Youth Commonwealth Games in Trinidad and Tobago.
At the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Port-of-Spain, sprinters, Tianna Springer, Malachi Austin and Narissa McPherson all clinched berths for their respective 400m finals today following scintillating runs in the semi finals.
Springer, this year’s CARIFTA Games and South American U-20 Championships gold medalist, showed her pedigree once again, recording the fastest qualifying time in the quarter-mile event. The track standout clocked 54.00s to emerge as the top seed for today’s final. She was notably over a second faster than the next-best qualifier, Charlotte Henrich (55.16s) from England.
McPherson, finished second to Henrich in semi-final two and earned her position in the women’s 400m finals by virtue of her time of 55.46s. McPherson was the third fastest qualifier yesterday and is also poised for a podium finish.
In the men’s version of the event, Malachi Austin recorded a personal best (48.13s) in the semis en route to also clinching the top seed heading into today’s finale.
Earlier on the track, Attoya Harvey snagged the last qualifying spot (12th) in today’s women’s 1500m final after finishing sixth in her semi yesterday in 4:55.14s.
In the men’s category, Javon Roberts unfortunately failed to clinch a finals berth after finishing seventh in his heat in 4:20.45s.
Meanwhile, over at the National Aquatic Centre in Couva, swimmers Elliott Gonsalves, Ariel Rodrigues and Shareefa Lewis all failed to qualify for the next round of their respective events which were contested yesterday.
