BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - ATHLETES of reigning TDC Inter-School Champions, Charles E Mills Secondary School (CEMSS) were in the spotlight yesterday afternoon (Feb. 27) as the school held its 48th annual Sports Day at the Sandy Point Recreational Ground.
The Sports Day was held under the patronage of the President of the Parent Teacher Association, Percy ‘Sly’ Daniel, who inspected the athletes and also took the salute of the march past. Also present was the newly-elected Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education and Sports, the Hon. Shawn Richards, who is also the Parliamentary Representative for the area.
Hundreds of Sandy Pointers turned out to see the afternoon got off to a sizzling start with the Class Three Girls 800 meters, which saw Nickeisha Howe of Red House seemingly dominating that event. But spectators got to their feet when last year’s winner of the race Alia Vanterpool found a burst of energy in the final 200 metres to claw her way back into contention but fell short by one tenth of a second to Howe.
It was the start of a special day for Reanda Richards of Red House who easily won the Class Two Girls 800 metres. She then proceeded to record wins in the Class Two 200 metres, 400 metres, 400 metres Hurdles 100 meters Hurdles, 100 metres as well as playing a key role in the 4x400 metres and 4x100 metres in her age group.
Another athlete that sparkled on the day was Demitre Browne of Blue House in the Boys Class Two category. He captured the crowns in the 200 meters, 400 metres, 400 metres Hurdles and the 100 metres.
Ketriana Huggins of Blue House dominated the sprints in the Class Three Girls category, where she outclassed her opponents in the 100, 200, and 400 metres events. Similarly, in the Class One Girls, Krystal Liburd dominated the sprints as she proved that she was indeed the fastest female in the school.
The day also saw some exciting relay races that had the audience on their feet and some of them could not help resisting the barriers that were in place to cheer on their favorite athlete.
The most exciting relay was however the Class Two Girls 4x400 metres that was seemingly heading in favour of Red House, but the Orange House anchor erased a 150-metre deficit to claw the team’s way to victory by edging Red House at the finish line.
Entering the Sports Day in the cellar in the four-house competition, defending champions Blue House was trailing the first place Orange House by 69 points.
However, the inconsistencies of the other houses to field athletes in a number of key races allowed Blue House to claw their way back into the competition, as they were almost present for each race and collected some crucial points.
As night stepped in, spectators and athletes as well as officials saw a debut for the lights at the venue which were installed just this week by the Parliamentary Representative who promised that those lights were temporarily set up and the permanent fixtures would be sought and installed before next year’s event.
Sports Day points:
Blue-323
Green-112
Orange-217
Red-258
Overall points:
Blue-1209
Green-1015
Orange-1172
Red-1169
