The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

DESPITE the rain that came at the end, the Ambassadors Track Club hosted a successful version of the 8th annual Fritz Grant Track Classic at the Thomas A Robinson Track and Field Stadium on Saturday.

The rain didn’t allow the organisers to stage the final events on the track, including the boys under-15 1,200 metres, the men’s 5,000m and the 4 x 400m relays, as well as a few events on the field. But there were quite a number of events completed that saw some outstanding performances turned in.

The marquee event on the day came in the men’s 400 metres where Andretti Bain pulled off the victory in 45.91 seconds.

Shane Jones, of the Star Elite Athletics, took the men’s 100m in 10.51, followed by Keanu Pennerman of Alliance Athletics in 10.65 and Yurick Dean of the College of the Bahamas in third place in 10.68.

Dean came back and posted the victory in the 200m in 21.28 with Jamal Moss of the Ambassadors in second in 21.69. Stephen Newbold of Star Elite Athletics was third in 21.75.

V’Alonee Robinson, of Club Monica, won the women’s 100m in 12.03 with Jerinique Brooks second in 12.14. Robinson also doubled up by taking the long jump with a leap of 6.03m (19-9 1/2).

On the field, Bradley Cooper Jr of Thrower’s Inc. captured both the men’s discus with a heave of 36.44 metres or 119-feet, 6-inches and the shot put with 12.57m (41-3).

His sister, Knastachia Cooper, took the women’s discus with a toss of 37.90m (124-4).

But Luxzonica Young, Cooper’s team-mate at the College of the Bahamas, won the shot put with 11.09m (36-4 3/4). Cooper had to settle for second with 10.37m (34-0 1/4). Young also doubled up by taking the javelin with a heave of 30.10 (98-9).

Leap of Faith team-mates Kenya Culmer and Vinisa Beneby both cleared 1.70m (5-7), but Culmer was awarded the victory on fewer knockdowns in the women’s high jump. Ellison Greenslade, also from Leap of Faith, won the men’s high jump with 2.00m (6-6 3/4).

Ambassadors’ head coach Fritz Grant, the meet was named after him in his honour, said despite the inclement weather, everything turned out very good.

“It was very competitive and we had about 790 entries in the meet that catered to both the CAC age group athletes and those who are trying to make the various junior and senior national teams this year,” Grant said.

“We had some of the elite athletes like Ramon Miller, Andretti Bain and V’Alonee Robinson and we had a lot of the age group athletes. The support was very good and the competition was good,” Grant said. “We have both the junior and senior nationals coming up in June, so it was a good meet for the athletes to get ready. The athletes were able to do some fine tuning and the coaches got to see where the athletes are.”

Athletes also came in from Exuma and Grand Bahama to participate with about 30 clubs registered.

The meet was sponsored jointly by Commonwealth Bank, First Caribbean Bank, Vitamalt, the Caribbean Bottling Company Limited, Variety Disposable and Thompson Trading.

Grant said they are hoping to improve on this year’s meet and make it even better next year with more of the elite athletes coming home to compete.