By BVIAA

alakai Smith, a student at the Ebenezer Thomas Primary School, bagged CAC Age Group Championships 60m silver and Baseball Throw bronze. Photo: Dean “The Sportsman” Greenaway

Malaki Smith returned from the Central American and Caribbean Age Group Championships held in Trinidad over the weekend, with silver and bronze medals while several of the territory’s athletes had top five finishes in two days of stiff competition among their regional counterparts.

Smith dipped under the 2009 record of 7.80 seconds of Barbados’ Mario Burke in the 11-12 Boys 60m dash with a time of 7.71 seconds, but had to settle for silver after Jamaica’s Terrique Stennett lowered the mark to 7.59 in the first event of the competition.

Smith, a Swaggers guard who helped them to victory in the Roger A. Hodge Summer Basketball League after scoring 18 points while training for the CAC Age Group competition, climbed from 14th place to just two points behind third overall after a 53.88m Baseball Throw to earn a bronze medal, to end Day I of the competition. He would finish 13th overall in the Pentathlon with 2831 points as the top VI’s placer in the division. Sha’el Lavacia was 19th with 2601. They competed in the 60m dash, Long Jump, High Jump,

Baseball Throw and the 100m.
In the final event of the 13-14 Girls Heptathlon on Sunday afternoon, the BVI’s Tashara Edwards, who was fourth behind the U.S. Virgin Islands’ Mikaela Smith who won the gold medal, placed seventh overall in 3:27.66 for 499 of her 3490 points to end the competition in 14th place. She also competed in the 80m, Long Jump, Shot Put, 60m Hurdles, Baseball Throw and the High Jump.

Smith won the first heat of the two sections two and a half laps race that had a combined 27 participants in 3 minutes, 16.01 seconds to earn 573 points and finished 17th overall with a cumulative score of 3387 points.

Xiomara “Gia” Malone ran 3:54.72 for 19th overall, but had the highest placing of the Virgin Islands athletes in 12th place with 3553 points, on the strength of three top 10 finishes in the 80m, Long Jump and High Jump where she was fifth.

Ariyah Smith, who was fifth in the 11-12 Girls Pentathlon Long Jump with a personal best of 4.40m and in a three way tie for second in the High Jump, (there was also a four way tie for first) was 14th with 2305 points.

Teammate Alisha Hayde placed 21st with 1723 as she came up with no marks in the High Jump after failing to clear the bar, then narrowly missed an 800m bronze in the final event after a personal best effort of 2 minutes 39.62 seconds.

Like the boys, they contested the 60m, Long Jump, High Jump, Baseball Throw and ran the 800m instead of the 1000m.

By BVIAA

Rosmond Johnson was the first woman across the line in Saturday’s Ceres Juices 10K Series opener. Photo: Dean “The Sportsman” Greenaway

Rosmond Johnson and Reuben Stoby had season opening victories on Saturday in the Ceres Juices 10K Series opener on the City Circuit course in Road Town.

Johnson was the only woman under 50 minutes finishing in 49 minutes and 23 seconds. She said she ran the course a few times in preparation for the race and said she found the segment in Lower Estate with an incline a bit challenging “But this morning, the race started out cool and I liked it as it was a little breezy, then it started to get hot and I stopped a couple of times,” she said. “I said since I was leading the women, I’d keep it up so I tried my best and I kept Zebalon (McLean) in my sight. I was surprised that I didn’t let him leave me. In the end, I sped up, I did it and I’m happy.”

Like Johnson, Stoby tried the course and said he found it difficult as he was running slow and thought it would be a tough race having a headwind to contend with. “Then you had Guy (Williamson) and (Julius) Farley to contend with and looking strong. I think Farley ran a really good race. He actually didn’t want me to lead at anytime so that was good,” noted Stoby who covered the course in 40 minutes and 30 seconds with Farley finishing second in 41:10. “Once we passed the four mile marker, I tried to put some distance and I was able to do that and relax and finish strongly.”

Farley said he was trying to run at his normal pace. “I came out this morning feeling good and I tried to set the pace and keep going with it,” he explained. “The guys kept challenging me and I kept going until I reached the round about and took a wrong turn. By time I got out the turn, the guys were already ahead of me, so I had to work a little harder to catch up with them. I tried hard and came out in second place so I feel glad about that.”

Final results:

Men
1. Reuben Stoby, 40: minutes and 30 seconds 2. Julius Farley, 41:10. 3. Guy Williams, 42:54. 4. Ian Montgomery, 43:22. 5. Simon Cook, 47:14. 6. Zebalon McLean, 49:08. 7. Adrian Dale, 52:01. 8. Ruairi Burke, 55:01. 9. Jonathan Addo, 55:06. 10. Luke Plummer, 55:09. 11. Shane Donovan, 55:51. 12. Gary Salter, 56:08.13. James Drury, 50:45. 14. Claudius Rhymer, 1:00:32. 15. Pablo De Felipe, 1:01:09. 16. Howard Moore, 1:04:35. 17. Stephen Beard, 1:11:03. 18. Jim Cullimore, 1:12:16. 19. Richard Parchment, 1:30:38

Women
1. Rosmond Johnson, 49:23. 2. NiMade Oniasih, 51:36. 3. Rebecca Cook, 51:58. 4. Kay Reddy, 52:41. 5. Gillian Plaxton, 53:07. 6. Claudia Ferrari, 54:40. 7. Lauren Julien, 56:21. 8. Judy Haycraft, 57:00. 9. Jessica Santos, 58:00. 10. Debbie Bell, 59:30. 11. Maxine Jones, 1:01:08. 12. Anna Kinkead, 1:01:55.13. Barbara O’Neal, 1:04.26. 14. Claire Burke, 1:08:06. Short Course: Philomena Robertson, Darwn Peters.

By BVIAA

11-12 Boys from Top Notch, Sprint Tech and Hounds And Foxes Track Clubs compete in the 60m dash. Photo: Dean “The Sportsman” Greenaway

Top Notch Track Club’s Xiomara “Gia” Malone teammate Malaki Smith and Sprint Tech Track Club’s Aria Smith, were the top performers in Saturday’s BVI Athletics Association CAC Age Group trials, which also saw five St. Croix athletes in action.

A competitive 13-14 Girls division saw Malone edging Sprint Tech’s Tashara Edwards by 26 points after leading by 85 heading into the 1000m, the final of seven events. Malone secured the victory after winning the 80m dash in 10.93 seconds and the 60m Hurdles in 10.74, then taking second in both the Long Jump with a 4.63m effort and cleared 1.45m in the High Jump, to score 3425 points in the seven disciplines.

Edwards used a personal best of 4.73m to win the Long Jump and a 36.98m effort in the Baseball Throw for a victory and followed up with second places in the 80m Dash (10.94) and the 1000m (3:36.20) to place second with 3399.

Teammate Dominique Moses scored 3197 for third and Top Notch’s Z’Niah Hutchinson-Corea, 3072. Hounds and Foxes Jusenia Tuitt outdistanced the field to win the 1000m in 3:23.60 and earned 2681 points. Teammate and captain Paige Combie was unable to finish after hurting herself in the High Jump.

Leading the competition with 1856 points heading into the final of five events in the 11-12 Girls Division, St. Croix’s T’Yannah Lake came to the starting line of the 800m with tears in her eyes, after being coaxed ahead of the event.

Whatever it was bothering her she put it behind. The Hounds and Foxes Track Club athlete moved from the back in the latter stages of the race to finish third in 2 minutes, 57.94 seconds, behind Sprint Tech Track Club’s Alisha Hayde’s 2:49.47 mark and teammate Aria Smith’s 2:54.85, to win the competition with 2189 points. Lake, a Baseball player, easily won the Baseball Throw with a 39.00m measurement and the Long Jump with a leap of 3.96m. Smith was seven points better than Hayde to finish second with 2088, to Hayde’s 2081. Xaria Penn accumulated 1581 points and Hounds and Foxes’ T’Anna Lake, 1380.

“What a day at the office. It’s always a pleasure to be in the BVI and as usual, the competition was fantastic,” Hounds and Foxes Coach Charles Golphin noted. “We haven’t had a lot of opportunities to do High Jump or Long Jump. But, T’Yannah Lake, a baseball All Star, she won the Long Jump, did a great job in High Jump. She won the Baseball Throw and even with an injury, she came in third in the 800m and came out on top. It’s a grueling event.”

Top Notch Track Club’s Malachi Smith, who surfaced this year during the Inter Primary Championships after focusing on basketball, won the 11-12 Boys 60m in 8.04 seconds, the Baseball Throw with a heave of 56.35m, was second in the 1000m in 3:34.49, earned the division victory with 2864 points. Sprint Tech’s Sh’ael Lavacia, who trailed Top Notch’s Kybah Dawson by 70 points heading into the final event, finished 24 points ahead of Dawson, 2647-2620, after running 3:37.64 to Dawson’s 3:55.60 as they placed second and third overall respectively.

Sprint Tech’s Waynee Bell garnered 2555 points in fourth with Carliek Benjaman’s 2309 in sixth. Malike Romney, who missed the 60m dash to start the sequence of events, had 1177. Hounds and Foxes’ Makari Matthew-Lobby won the 1000m in 3 minutes 28.86 seconds to end the competition and placed fifth overall with 2329 points.

Four BVI athletes win in Puerto Rico
Tarkia Moses, Kyron McMaster, Karene King and Deya Erickson, were victorious in the weekend Puerto Rico national track and field championships. Moses shaved .10 off her 800m best to cross the line in 2 minutes 09.45 seconds. McMaster ran 53.49 seconds to win the 400m Intermediate Hurdles. Karene King won the 200m in 23.91 seconds after placing second in the 100m in 11.84. Deya Erickson won the U20 Girls 100m Hurdles in 14.57 seconds.