CHARLESTOWN Nevis, March 10th 2011 - The huge and appreciative crowd that showed up at the ETW Park yesterday were not disappointed as the top athletes at the Charlestown Secondary School matched their skills against each other at the school’s annual sports meet.
The meet which was held under the patronage of former top athlete and businessman, Mr. Gary Wade, got off to a late start and concluded under floodlights, well after 8 pm but was highly competitive as the athletes gave it their all. After weeks of chatter, much speculation and debate, this was it—this was the day ‘to back all of the chat’.
As a testimony to the keenness of the competition, no fewer than nine records were broken. Among the records broken, Renika Daniel in class B and Britney Morton in class A both placed their names in the permanent records and history books of CSS when they both became the first female athletes to run the 400 meters in under 60 seconds. In the 60 year history of the school, no female athlete had ever completed the distance that quickly.
Renika completed the distance in 59.56 while Britney’s time was 59.72.
Another athlete who was a definite crowd favourite at yesterday’s event was Kashka Forbes who last year broke the 36 year old record in the 1500 meters held by the former outstanding CSS middle distance runner and now successful entrepreneur, Mr. Andy Liburd.
It was obvious that when he started the 1500 meters event that with the pace at which he started, Kashka had serious intentions of breaking his own record.
As he sought to lap some of his competitors, the crowd urged him on to complete the race in record time. This he did in style, even bending down during the penultimate lap, to grab a quick drink of water from a bottle strategically placed close to the track, in the vicinity of the scoreboard.
Kashka’s brand new record in the 1500 meters now stands at 4:19: 63. His previous record set only last year was 4: 20:89.
Other records set on the day were:
Shyan Stanley of Red house –1500 meters--Class C—5:55:36
Gary Liburd-Green—1500 meters-Class three-5:11:73
Brittney Morton-Gold—100 meters—11:84
Blue house—4 x 100 meters—class two—47:93
Renika Daniel—Green— 200 meters-Class B—25:81
Brittney Morton—Gold—200 meters-Class A—25:33
At the end of the day, Green house emerged the champions on the day with 212 points, Blue was in second with a close 200 points, Red in third with a commendable 181 points and Gold in 4th with a distant 142 points
