– Linden overall winners
CARIFTA 1500m bronze medalist Andrea Foster and CARIFTA team athlete Chavez Ageday ignited Berbice last Sunday when the 12th edition of the LinWest Games saw Linden amassing 292 points to be the overall winners at the Games on the 300m perimeter Blairmont Estate ground. East Coast Demerara was runner-up to Linden with 249 points while East Berbice’s 195 points was awarded third place.
Talented Foster, who lately started running, outclassed the field in the open girls 1500m from the final 150m of the race to clock 5:19.2 seconds. Linden’s Shenika Chapman and Cassie Kirton were in distant second and third respectively, clocking 5:32.8 seconds and 5:37.3 seconds.
Inter-Guiana Games (IGG) medalists, Ornesto Thomas and Nathaniel ‘Brother’ Giddings had a neck to neck battle in the 1500m open boys from the start of the race but Thomas (4:24.5 seconds) proved he was the better athlete when he shifted gears to outsprint Giddings, leaving him to settle for the runner up position in 2:24.8 seconds.
Thomas who represented East Coast Demerara took another gold medal in the 800m boysU-18 in 2:09.1 seconds ahead of Grivon Grant (2:10.7 seconds) and Shaquille Smart (2:12.5 seconds).
East Berbice’s Kadeem Peters won the boys U-20 800m in 2:16.0 seconds after a massive dip on finish line against Levi Cornette of East Coast Demerara who finished in 2:16.2 seconds.
Giddings and Chapman of Linden took easy victories in the open 5000m and 3000m in 16:35.5 seconds and 11:54.7 seconds respectively.
Chavez Ageday, Shannon Griffith and Tandica Burgess conducted clean sweeps in the 100m and 200m in their various age categories.
Top sprinter Ageday easily took the boys U-20 100m and 200m in 11.1 seconds and 23.4 seconds. Linden’s Marlon Moshett who had a great chance of medaling in the 100m pulled up about 50m-60m in the race leaving his team mate, Carl Tudor to take silver in 11.3 seconds ahead of Quincy Nicholson who finished in 11.9 seconds.
Tudor settled for another second in the boys 200m when Ageday ruled the field again in 23.8 seconds. Daryl Bennos of East Berbice was third in 24.7 seconds.
Griffith was also in the winning spree in the U-18 girls’ category when she executed perfectly on the track to be unchallenged in the two sprint dashes (100m & 200m) clocking 12.5 seconds and 26.9 seconds.
Jason Yaw won the U-18 boys 100m in 11.4 seconds ahead of Alvin Garnette’s 11.7 seconds and Tyrell Cummings’s 11.8 seconds. Samuel Doris won the 200m in 23.8 seconds leaving Garnette (24.3 seconds) to settle for another silver medal.
Doris of East Coast Demerara also won the 400m in 53.6 seconds, Shaquille Smart was second in 54.2 seconds. Akeea Chapman of West Berbice won girls U-18 in 1:05.3 seconds, while Annecia Benjamin of Linden won the girls U-20 in 1:11.9 seconds.
IGG gold medalist Parish Cadogan bounded to two gold medals in the open category of the long jump and high jump, effortlessly registering 180 cm (high) and 6m75cm (long) to give Linden 20 points.
Marlyn Joseph of East Berbice leaped to 4m83cm to take first place, while Kalencia Harris best leap of 4m46cm was second.
Timothy Fullington, the only field event athlete that qualified for the CARIFTA Games, threw 44m54cm in the open boys Javelin to take gold; no other thrower was able to reach the 40m mark.
Onescia Byass added another 20 points to Linden when she registered distances of 32m22cm and 9m10cm in the open Discus and Shot Put.