Williams leads the way as field event athletes shine

FIELD event athletes, led by discus thrower Cedricka Williams of Holmwood Technical, were in great form over the weekend at the Youngster Goldsmith Classics at the National Stadium as seven records were broken.

Williams, who represented the country at last summer’s World Under-20 Championships in Cali, Colombia, won the Class One discus with a new mark of 49.89 metres ahead of Abbigal Martin of St Jago High with 49.29m. Both marks were inside the old record of 49.06m set by former Rusea’s High thrower Shamella Davidson.

Najhado Seymore of Excelsior High was also in record form in the throws. Competing in Class Two discus, she won with a best of 43.04m to erase the previous mark of 39.05m. Rehemne Biggs of St Jago 42.95m and Marla Kay Lampart 41.05m of Clarendon College were second and third, respectively.

Holmwood Technical’s Celine Riddle also wrote her name in the record books. She won the Class One long jump with 5.87m to erase the 2020 mark of 5.68m set by former Edwin Allen High jumper Brittany Ingram. St Jago’s Michelle Stanley was second with 5.71m.

Riddle returned later to win the triple jump open with 12.64m, getting the better of St Jago’s Jade Ann Dawkins with 12.59m.

Edwin Allen High’s Asia McKay accounted for the next female record on the day after clearing 1.60m to win the Class Four high jump, the same height cleared by second-place finisher, Yoanna Luke of the Convent of Mercy Academy.

Three records were broken by the boys. Kingston College’s (KC) Class One High jumper Aaron McKenzie cleared 2.10m to erase the 2.05m mark set by former Jamaica College’s jumper Alexander Thompson in 2019. Calabar High’s Jevantae Grant 2.05m and Kevin Brooks 1.85m took second and third, respectively.

Daijan Budhai of KC had a record throw in the Class Two discus with a winning mark of 47.72m. Clarendon College’s Joseph Salmon took second with 47.19m.

The third record came in the javelin throw as Devon Spencer, competing unattached, won with 67.52m to remove the old mark of 65.94m held by Orlando Thomas. Thomas was second in the event on Saturday with 65.04m.

KC were dominant overall in the field events. In the Class One triple jump, they had a clean sweep of the top three spots. Nathan Wade won with 14.96m, ahead of Royan Walters, 14.83m, and Jauvaughn Cephas, 14.46m. Roshawn Onfroy won the Class Two triple jump with 13.59m, and Necko Reid won the Class Two high jump with 1.90m.

After his first defeat of the season in the discus Class One the previous week at the Queen’s/Grace Jackson Meet, Calabar’s Kobe Lawrence, the World Under-20 shot put silver medallist, returned to winning ways. He won the discus event with a throw of 59.53m, getting the better of St Jago’s Shaiquan Dunn, with 38.55m.

- Raymond Graham