The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

Tamaz Thompson, Antonique Butler, Julianna Duncanson and Leslie Dorceval were all double medal winners at the College of the Bahamas’ Third Annual Track Classic on Saturday.

The one-day meet at the old Thomas A Robinson Track and Field Stadium also saw ‘golden knight’ quarter-miler Ramon Miller make his season debut as he prepares for the inaugural Chris Brown Bahamas Invitational at the new Thomas A Robinson Track and Field Stadium on Saturday.

Miller, who anchored the men’s 4 x 400 metre relay team that was led off by Brown to victory at the London Olympic Games in August, clocked 20.97 seconds to take the men’s 200 metres. Miller, representing Silver Lightning, beat out Shane Jones, who followed in 21.25.

Jones, competing for Stat Elite Athletics, won the men’s 100 in 10.40 over his team-mate Trevon Greene, who finished in 10.45, ahead of Fast Forward’s Ulysses Hinsey (10.65). Greene was also third in the 200 in 21.54.

COB’s head coach Bradley Cooper said they were pleased with the way the meet turned out and now they are looking forward to heading to Miami, Florida, this weekend for the Miami Invitational where they will renew their rivalry with the teams that participated here.

“It was plus for COB,” Cooper said. “We had two visiting universities from Florida and we found that a lot of the performances today were season bests from athletes both from here and from Warner College and Bethune Cookman. We had good weather conditions, the meet was short and not as stressful as the other meets this year. So it was good to have a college meet where we didn’t have a lot of the young competitors competing. The seniors knew exactly when they had to compete.”

With two personal best performances from Duncanson, Gerrard Burrows, Kyle Higgs and Ashley Oembler, Cooper said they are very eager to see how well their team performs under more competition when they head to Miami.

Back for their second appearance in the meet after missing last year, Bethune Cookman’s head coach Don Cooper said his 26 athletes performed up to expectations.

“The meet ran well. I know with organising a meet, it takes a lot of people and a lot of time, but I think they did a very good job,” he said. “We were really pleased with how it went and the performances from our athletes. We hope to be back next year.”

For Manuel Salazar, his 11 athletes from Warner College were right on target as well.

“For us, it was a great experience,” said Salazar, who made his first trip here. “We expected a lot from our team and because of the way they performed, we are going to start working right away on coming back for next year. This was a good experience for our team.”

Both Cooper and Salazar said they were anticipating the meet being held in the new TAR stadium, but even though it wasn’t held there, they were both impressed with the atmosphere at the old TAR stadium.

The women’s century was won by Tristie Johnson of Bethune Cookman in 11.80, well ahead of Warner College’s Angelique Ligon in 12.39. Shayne Rolle came in third for the COB Caribs in 13.17.

Thompson, representing the Star Elite Athletics, posted her double in the 200 in 25.48 and the 400 in 1:00.57. Bahamas High Performance’s Krystal Johnson (25.66) and Raygene McPhee (25.87) trailed in the half-lap race, while Shonte Miller of the HPMT came in second in the one-lapper in 1:02.67, followed by Quick Step’s Rowena Pickstock in 1:02.82.

On the field and fresh off her performance for Team Bahamas at the 42nd BTC Carifta Games, Antonique Butler triumphed in the women’s long jump with a leap of 5.52 metres and the triple jump with 12.36m.

Anyi Paola Garcia of Colombian Junior had to settle for a pair of second place finishes with 5.34m in the long jump and 11.80m in the triple. Paola Garcia, however, won the high jump, clearing 1.61m ahead of BTC Carifta standout Celine Thompson with 1.59m and Deidra Jordan of Bethune Cookman with 1.57m.

Jordan captured the 100 hurdles in 15.22 with her teammate Sasha Smallwood trailing in 17.84 ahead of COB’s Shonte Cargill in 17.99. Warner College’s Andrene Dume was the winner of the 400 hurdles in 1:13.8. Her teammates Joane Petithomme (1:18.09) and Kendra Barrientos (1:21.96) were second and third respectively.

Duncanson, competing for the COB Caribs, took the shot put with a heave of 12.96m ahead of Serena Brown of Throwers Inc. with 11.35m and Kendera Bethel of COB with 10.76m. Duncanson also threw the discus 44.58m ahead of RC Athletics’ Alexander Marshall-Paul, another Carifta team member, who did 39.40m with Brown third with 38.25m.

Maverick Bowleg of the Road Runners clinched the men’s 400 title in 51.22.

Dorceval, competing for Quick Step, came through with his double feat in the 800 in 2:05.60 ahead of Reynaldo Morris’ 2:06.67. Dorceval’s other win came in the 1.500 in 4:38.69, followed by teammate Peterson Bennoit in 4:44.96. Morris ran the 5,000 in 17:19.85.

The 110 hurdles was won by Kemar Clarke with 14.27 over Bethune Cookman’s Junior Saint-Preux (14.35) and Tasman Evans (14.52). Evans, suiting up for Ambassadors Athletics, took the 400 hurdles in 53.77 with Warner College’s Dyrren Barber second in 54.66 and Carifta team member Xavier Coakley of Club Monica third in 55.09.

On the field, PVS Sports’ Alfredo Smith leapt 7.10m in the long jump, COB’s Leonardo Romer captured the high jump with 1.95m, the triple jump went to PVS Sports’ Lamar Delaney with 15.72m, Throwers Inc’s Delron Innis took the shot put with 14.16m, COB’s Gerrad Burrows got the discus with 48.01m and the javelin went to Club Monica’s Anthony Butler with 51.23m.

The under-20 girls century was won by Club Monica’s Makeya White in 11.88, while her teammate Ian Kerr captured the boys straightaway race in 10.90. Both were on the Carifta team as well.

Another Carifta fifth place finisher Kirk Lewis, representing HPMT, took the under-20 boys 110m hurdles in 14.16 over RC Athletics’ Aaron Ross (16.37).

And like they did at the BTC Carifta Games, there was a Special Olympics 100 metre race with Pasquel Rolle winning in 13.74. Tavaris Cooper was second in 13.96 and Rashad Price got third in 13.98.