The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

Tarahj Hudson tossed his name into the record book, while Dion Desamour, Larcathea Cooper and Clinton Laguerra emerged as CARIFTA qualifiers during the inaugural Red-Line Classic at the Thomas A Robinson National Stadium on Saturday.

The meet, hosted by the Red-Line Track Club, was held under the patronage of St Augustine’s College principal Sonja Knowles and honoured former Big Red Machine and Club Monica coach Dianne Woodside-Johnson.

Red-Line Athletics' founder and head coach Tito Moss was quite pleased with what he saw.

“Generally, I’m pleased, but I’m very critical of myself, so there are some things that I saw that I want and we would add to the meet next year,” said Moss, who is also the father of University of Kentucky’s sophomore quarter-miler Megan Moss.

“The persons we serve, the clubs and athletes, generally seemed to be pleased with the presentation of the meet, the flow of the meet, the attendance of the meet and the flow of the meet, so that speaks volumes.”

Moss said once the clubs and athletes were satisfied, he feels he’s completed the job, but he’s already looking at ways to improve the meet.

The event is expected to be an annual one on the calendar of the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations.

Hudson’s record-breaking feat

Normally when he’s upset, Hudson said he takes his frustration out when he’s competing in the shot put. On Saturday, peeved with the delay in the start of the event, he said he decided to throw the under-20 boys’ shot put a lot further.

It landed him in the BAAA record book as the new junior national record holder with a winning heave of 52-feet, 10-inches or 16.10 metres.

The throw erased the previous mark of 52-1 1/4 (15.88m) that was set by Drexel Maycock on March 15, 2015.

“I feel it’s great to be the best. It’s good to know that when you continue to work hard you reap the benefits of your hard work,” said Hudson, who is being trained by coach Corrington Maycock in the Blue Chips Athletic Club.

“It encourages me to do better because success inspires success, so I think the more I succeed the more I want to succeed and so it definitely gives me more motivation to see that the hard work is paying off slowly.”

He improved on his previous personal best of 49-4 1/2 (15.05m) in December at their Blue Chips Athletics’ Throwers Meet.

He attained the qualifying standard in the discus for the postponed CARIFTA Games that will now be held in August in Bermuda. “One of my goals this year is to just continue to get stronger so to keep getting stronger, I have to be more resilient and just continue what I can control at the track meets,” said Hudson, who was a little annoyed because his field event didn’t get off as scheduled. Also, I just want to be consistent.”

The 6-foot, 4-inch Hudson, son of former volleyball great Oral ‘Iceberg’ Hudson, is hoping that he will get back on the podium for his third CARIFTA medal, having won a pair of bronze in the discus and shot put in the under-17 division in 2018 and a silver in discus at NACAC U-18 and U-23 in 2019.

Desamour toast of the meet

While there were some performances expected, the most that stunned everybody was that of Dion Desamour, who after a year hiatus, returned to track and field to pop a winning jump of 24-1 (7.34m) to surpass the under-20 boys long jump qualifying mark of 23-8 3/4 (7.23m)

“It was my first jump. I didn’t expect that because I was coming off one year of not training because I was doing other sports,” said Desamour. “I knew I was going to do great, but thanks to God for the performance.

“I’m excited and just waiting to see what comes next. I know I want to go to the Carifta trials and do better than I did today. I just have to work on my mark and my approach to the board.”

The 18-year-old 12th grader at CR Walker where he also participated in volleyball and soccer, represented Swift Athletics, coached by Andrew Tynes, his first year with the track club and already he’s seen a vast improvement.

Cooper cleared the hurdle

The St Augustine’s College 11th grader and Red-Line Athletics representative got an early present as she celebrates her 17th birthday on March 25 by coming through in the under-20 girls’ 400m hurdles, clocking 1:00.12 to dip under the Carifta qualifying standard of 1:01.91.

Keianna Cambridge from Power Athletics trailed in 1:08.33 for second and Shanai Sweeting from Red-Athletics was third in 1:17.46.

““It was nice. It wasn’t what I wanted, but it was nice,” Cooper said. “I didn’t have any strategy. I just went out and did what I had to do. I feel good. I qualified.”

Laguerra made up for stumble

Although he clipped the ninth of the 10 flight of hurdles, Laguerra still went on to snatch the victory in the under-17 boys’ 400m hurdles in 54.98 to surpass the Carifta standard of 56.48.

As he prepre to celebrate his 16th birthday on Sunday, the St Augustine’s College 10th grader said he tried to focus too much on his time and he lost concentration clearing thed hurdles.

“I really wasn’t pleased with my performance because I felt I didn’t execute. I’m proud of the time. Hopefully in the future, I will be able to do better,” he said.

“I feel good that I was able to qualify again. I did it last year and I came back and did it again. I just expect to qualify for NACAC Under-18 (54.53) and run better than what I did here.”

Laing and Bain missed the cut

In a showdown between two Red-Line Athletics team-mates, Otto Laing surged ahead to win the under-20 boys’ 400m hurdles in 55.61 over Shimar Bain, who was second in 55.67 as they both fell short of the Carifta mark of 52.65.

“I got out and over the first hurdle, I had a problem with my step, but I got over it,” he said. “I came down the back stretch and I had to work through it. On the final stretch, I knew I had to go for it to get the win.”

The 16-year-old 11th grader at SAC said as a sprinter, he have to make more of an adjustment to the race than Bain, who is more of a hurdles specialist.

Another impressive performance came St John’s 12th grader Wendell Miller in the under-20 boys 400m. The Swift Athletics’ representative, running out of lane one, clocked 48.27 for the victory to go under the Carifta B qualifying standard of 48.28, but his aim was to achieve the A standard of 47.34.

Wanya McCoy of Fast Forward was second in 49.73 and Malcolm Williams of the Road Runners was third in 50.18.

The meet also attracted a visitor, Grace Furlony, who won the open women’s long jump with 18-1 1/2 (5.52m).

There were also several events for competitors to compete in the masters men and women divisions. Red-Line Athletics’ assistant coach Michael Armbrister won the men’s long jump with 14-11 1/4 (4.55m) and the 400m in 1:01.95. Greg Lowe took the 800m in 3:56.98.

Dazelle Munroe from Kids Athletics won the masters women’s 100m in 16.72.

Moss thanked their many sponsors, including Platinum members Tito O. Moss Construction, Fidelity Bank (Bahamas) Limited, ALM Properties Limited and F.R. Miller Construction; gold sponsor Lady Darling Steel Company; silver sponsors Pedialyte, South Side Medical Clinic and Platinum Pools as well as bronze sponsors 21st Century Hardware, Megan Moss, Kandy Creations, Bodie/Frazier, Angelo Strachan, Legacy College Reading and College Consultant and Digiprint & Signs Bahamas Limited.

He also thanked Mr and Mrs Gomez; Mr and Mrs Osbourne, Shanique Sweeting, Centreville Food Store, Unique Discovery, Nassau Agency Limited, Track Star Barids, AJK Shipping, Nature’s Bounty, Transformation Ministries International, Tammy Archer, Patricia Longley, Thaillise Maycock, Roshann Miller and Kenneth Fountain.