GEORGE TOWN, Grand Cayman – OUT of the 25 participating countries at this year’s Carifta Games in the Cayman Islands, Team St. Kitts-Nevis delivered a seventh place finish overall after earning one gold and one silver medal on the first day of competition.
Yesterday’s (Apr. 6) final day of competition in the three day event saw Nevisian Tesril Nisbett nearly repeating her 2009 bronze winning performance in the Women’s U-20 Javelin, but she unfortunately came up less than half a meter shy of the podium.
Nisbett held the bronze position for a solid part of the event after her second and best throw of 37.25m, but Trinidad & Tobago’s Darlene Lewis edged her just out of medal contention with a toss of 37.64m.
Though Nisbett had solid throws in her chase of Lewis, she could not find the right combination of power and trajectory through the sector to surpass the mark and was forced to settle for a fourth place finish.
The event was won by Carlene Johnson of the Bahamas with a distance of 42.61m and silver was taken by Myriam Sacama-Isidore of Martinique with a 40.97m throw.
St. Kitts-Nevis’ medals came on the first day from Adrian Williams, who earned gold in the Boy’s U-17 Javelin with a throw of 57.42m, and Jason Rogers, who took silver in the Men’s U-20 100m with a time of 10.48sec.
Williams’ gold was the Federation’s first in seven years at the Carifta Games, with the last coming from Tiandra Ponteen in the Women’s U-20 200m at the 2003 games in Trinidad & Tobago.
Though there were no other medals to be had, the Federation was also well-represented at the competition by Dion Samuel, Trefesana White, Lonzo Wilkinson Jr. and Kadeem Smith.
In the overall medal count, Jamaica once again emerged as the champions in a league all their own after taking 37 gold, 22 silver and 13 bronze medals.
Trinidad & Tobago came in as runner-up with 12 gold, 16 silver and 12 bronze, while their very own Jehue Gordon brought home the Austin Sealy Award as the top athlete of the games after taking gold and setting new records in both the Men’s U-20 110m Hurdles and 400 Hurdles.
Third place overall was taken by the Bahamas with six gold, 10 silver and 13 bronze. Out of the participating Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States, St. Kitts-Nevis was only bettered by Grenada, who finished fifth with two gold medals.
After returning to the Federation tomorrow (Apr. 7), the nation’s athletes will continue their preparations for the Central American and Caribbean Junior Championships in the Dominican Republic from June 5-9. Subsequently they will gear up for the biggest youth competition of the year, the IAAF World Junior Championships in Moncton, Canada in late July.
