BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – SANDY POINT HIGH SCHOOL (SPHS) pulled ahead in the final events of the TDC/Coca-Cola/LIME Interschool Championships yesterday (Mar. 21) and ran away as still the only school to ever win the competition at the Silver Jubilee Anniversary Stadium.
SPHS had traded the lead spot with Verchilds High School (VHS) throughout the final two days of the competition, but when the latter team failed to provide the needed golds in the 100m and 4 x 400m finals it became apparent that red and black would once again rule the St. Kitts-Nevis track.
SPHS finished with a medal count of 19 gold, 10 silver and 21 bronze, while VHS ended the three day competition with 15 gold, 11 silver and 15 bronze.
Roen Gumbs was Sandy Point’s first gold medalist of the day as he easily defeated the competition in the U-17 Boys Long Jump with a near record setting distance of 6.42m. That medal was quickly followed by Queneala Bradshaw, also of Sandy Point, picking up gold in the U-20 Girls High Jump.
SPHS also grabbed gold in the field from Vekeish Connor in the U-15 Girls Shot Put and Stavia Lewis in the U-17 Girls Discus Throw.
The reigning champions lacked some of their usual fire in the track events, but still managed to grab gold medals in the U-17 Girls 400m, U-17 Boys 100m, U-20 Girls 100m Hurdles and U-20 Girls 4 x 400m relay to give them the winning count.
Meanwhile, VHS also struggled in the sprinting events after having dominated the competition on day two of the Interschool Championships.
Jerome Liddie cleared the school’s first gold on the final day in the U-20 Boys Javelin after reaching a distance of 47.58m. This was added to once the track events began and the multi-talented Lonzo Wilkinson Jr. continued his winning ways in the U-17 Boys 400m with a time of 53.02.
VHS also found gold in the U-20 Boys Triple Jump and the U-20 Girls 1500m. While the school did not win the overall championship, they were highly honoured when students Wilkinson and Rosalie Pringle received the Victor and Victrix Lodorum awards, respectively, for their top performances in the competition.
Another big surprise for the day came from the Washington Archibald High School (WAHS), which managed to pull in a whopping eight gold medals on the final day to take third place overall.
Those who had made their bets with WAHS may have been distraught after the first two days of competition when the school only had five golds, but the orange-clad athletes consistently made their presence felt across the 100m, 1500m and 4 x 400m and nearly grabbed second place from VHS as they finished the day with 13 medals of each colour.
Nevisians were also made proud as the Charlestown Secondary School (CSS) gave one of its best performances in years and took fourth place overall with 10 medals of each colour.
Though qualification marks for this year’s Carifta Games were hard to come by, a total of eight Interschool records were broken on the final day of competition.
The biggest improvement easily came from Basseterre High School’s Shenella Mitchum in the U-15 Girls 1500m, as her time of 5:13.96 shattered the previous mark of 5:26.33 set by VHS’ Pringle in 2006.
Other record breaking athletes were Gingerland Secondary School’s Colin Archibald in the U-15 Boys Shot Put, CSS’ Kashka Forbes in the U-20 Boys 1500m, WAHS’ Josiah Oyebefun in the U-15 Boys 100m, Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College’s Dion Samuel in the U-20 Boys Discus, WAHS in the U-15 Boys 4 x 400m and CSS in the U-20 Boys 4 x 400m.
Full results for all three days of the TDC/Coca-Cola/LIME Interschool Championships can be obtained by visiting www.sknaaa.com/results/interschool2010.
Following the completion of the competition, the top finishing teams celebrated on the field and were presented with their respective awards as local superstar Infamus serenaded the capacity crowd with his hit songs.
Other highlights on the action packed final day included an appearance by the Queen’s Baton, which was visiting St. Kitts-Nevis as a part of the lead up to this year’s Commonwealth Games, and a 100m exhibition between some of the nation’s top senior athletes past and present, including Kim Collins, Delwayne Delaney, Jason Rogers and Melville Rogers.
