BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – CAYON PRIMARY SCHOOL dominated both days of the 2010 Rams Primary Schools Track and Field Championships this weekend and successfully emerged as the top school on St. Kitts.
Though they were variously challenged at times by last year’s champion St. Pauls, Sandy Point and the Dr. William Connor Primary Schools, Cayon comfortably finished as the winning school with nine gold, six silver and five bronze medals.
An early lead for Cayon was earned on the first day of competition Saturday (Mar. 27) when Kisiah Pondt, Dalencia Roberts and Joel Henry each earned gold medals for the school in the Boys U-11 High Jump, Girls U-13 800m and Boys U-13 800m, respectively.
Roberts came through again at the start of the second day with gold in the Girls U-13 High Jump, but Cayon struggled after that to further enhance their lead. Meanwhile, Sandy Point and Dr. William Connor rallied in the field events and 200m on Sunday to come within striking distance.
Cayon very effectively stopped their opponents’ momentum in the 400m events, however. Roberts predictably was the catalyst for her team when she won gold in the U-13 category and tied the meet record with a time of 1:04.83.
This was followed by back-to-back 400m gold in the Boys U-13 and Girls U-11 categories from Ricardo Taylor and Namibia Clavier, which placed Cayon firmly in the lead.
The team’s final two golds for the competition came in the Girls U-13 4x100m and Girls Open 4x400m relays.
Roberts also set a new meet record in the Girls U-13 High Jump after clearing the 1.30m mark, well above the previous record of 1.24m set by Kadesha Hodge of Tyrell-Williams Primary in 2009. The strength in the High Jump did not stop there for Cayon, however, as Pondt also set a new record of 1.28m in the Boys U-11 category.
A good effort by Sandy Point on the final day of competition put them in close contention for the top spot, but the young team came up just shy for second place with seven gold, six silver and four bronze medals.
While the team performed solidly on the track, Sandy Point’s biggest winners of the day were Jermaine Francis, Jamarie Browne and Dimetre Browne, who set new meet records in the Boys U-13 High Jump, Boys U-9 Long Jump and Boys U-11 Long Jump, respectively.
Dr. William Connor Primary was very close behind Sandy point and came third by a mere two silver medals less while being tied in the gold and bronze categories, as they turned in one of their best performances in recent years.
Eight more records were broken at the competition and many athletes showed that great strides continue to be made in the grassroots development of St. Kitts-Nevis track and field.
Israel Liburd of the St. Joseph/St. Theresa’s Convent combined team astounded the crowd by setting new records in the Boys U-11 100m and 200m, while Olujede Bridgewater, who ran unattached due to a conflict between the St. Kitts-Nevis Amateur Athletics Association and the Seventh Day Adventist Primary School, broke records in the Girls U-9 60m and 200m.
Bridgewater has been marked as one of, if not the top U-9 athlete in the Federation ahead of the Caribbean Union of Teachers Games to be held this year in St. Kitts, and was named as the Victrix Lodorum for the Rams Track and Field Championships as she retained her class champion status from last year.
The remaining records broken at the meet were in the Girls U-9 Long Jump, Girls U-13 200m, Girls 1200m Open and Boys 1200m Open by Brittney Martin, Shanice Elliott, Sharessa Steinbergen and Jamari Nisbett, respectively.
While 2009 champion St. Pauls Primary was unable to repeat its performance from last year, the squad finished fourth overall and star athlete in the U-13 age division, Kizan David, was named Victor Lodorum after winning gold medals in the Long Jump, 200m and 100m.
Overall, the championships saw a strong show of talent from nearly all of the 19 participating public and private learning institutions, as all but two earned at least one medal across the two days.
