The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

St George’s, Grenada — It’s probably the most gruelling event to be contested at a track and field meet, but close friends Kendrick Thompson and Ken Mullings proved that they are made of steel as they battled it out for the gold and bronze respectively in the boys’ open octathlon at the 45th CARIFTA Games.

On Sunday night at the Grenada National Athletics Stadium, the only person who prevented them from completing a sweep of the top two spots was Marcus Brown from Jamaica.

While Thompson finished the eight events over the first two days of competition with 5,849 to get on top of the podium, Mullings joined him with 5,560 for the bronze. Brown took the silver with 5,800 points. The 16 competitors, four of whom didn’t complete the event, participated in the 100m, long jump, shot put and 400 on Saturday. They came back on Saturday and completed the competition with the 110m hurdles, high jump, javelin and 1,500m.

Thompson, competing in the event for the second year, improved on his previous best of 5,700, but Mullings, back on the team for the fourth time, fell short of last year’s achievement of 5,660. Neither got on the podium in St Kitts & Nevis, so it was a tremendous feat for both of them.

“It was good, good competition,” said Thompson, who enjoyed competing in the 400m and the 110 hurdles, two events he dominated.

However, 18-year-old Thompson said he intends to go on and become a decathlete, which is a step up from the octathlon. He admitted that he will have to improve on his distance running as the 1,500m is the last event at the end of the competition. That is why he said it was good that Mullings was there as his team-mate.

“It was good to have Ken out there with me because he’s a good competitor and a fighter,” Thompson said. “It was good to see all the people out here, but I don’t think they give us enough support as we should, competing in an event like this.”

As for Mullings, he said he gave it his best shot.

“I tried hard and I finished strong,” he pointed out. “I tried to improve on the things that I’ve been doing in practice and it worked.”

Looking back at his performance, 19-year-old Mullings pointed that the 110m hurdles and high jump were his best events, but he has to work on all of the other six events. But he noted that it was good to have Thompson competing in the event to encourage him.

“Most of the time I do the multiple events, Kendrick is right there. He’s a good competitor, really strong,” Mullings said. “We have a lot of fun when we compete against each other.”

Here’s a look at the individual performances of the two Bahamians in the octathlon competition for the boys under-20 division at the 45th Carifta Games in St George’s, Grenada over the Easter holiday weekend:

100 metres

Heat one - Ken Munnings, 2nd, 11.09 secs, 841 points.

Heat two - Kendrick Thompson, 1st, 11.03 secs, 841 pts.

Long jump

Ken Munnings, 5th, 6.45m, 686 pts.

Kendrick Thompson, 9th, 6.23m, 637 pts.

Shot put

Kendrick Munnings, 2nd, 12.64m, 645 pts.

Ken Munnings, 3rd, 12.35m, 628 pts.

400m

Heat one - Ken Munnings, 4th, 51.58 secs, 743 pts.

Heat two - Kendrick Munnings, 1st, 48.22 secs., 899 pts.

110m hurdles

Heat one - Kendrick Thompson, 1st, 14.61 secs., 897 pts.

Heat two - Ken Munnings, 2nd, 14.63 secs., 895 pts.

High jump

Ken Munnings, 2nd, 1.96m, 767 pts.

Kendrick Munnings, 4th, 1.93m, 740 pts.

Javelin

Kendrick Thompson, 3rd, 50.66m, 598 pts.

Ken Mullings, 13th, 41.60m, 465 pts.

1,500m

Ken Mullings, 7th, 5:04.26, 535 pts.

Kendrick Thompson, 8th, 5:15.40, 474 pts.