The times of Huggins, Warner and Moses, along with Sprint Tech Track Club’s Taylor Hill’s 12.22, met the IAAF World Youth Championships qualifying standard of 12.45 seconds at the Development Meet on Saturday February 9, 2013. Photo: Charlie E. Jackson/VINO

Kendall Davis continued his fine season with victory over 200m in 22.29 seconds. Photo: Charlie E. Jackson/VINO

Xiomara “Gia” Malone won the 11-12 Girls Pentathlon, scoring 1729 points in four of five events. Deborah Smith followed with 1584 and Zara Brown accumulated 1516. Photo: Charlie E. Jackson/VINO

The recently formed Raw Skills continued their improvements despite a lack of facilty over on Virgin Gorda. Photo: Charlie E. Jackson/VINO

Huggins got the Open events off to a flyer with a searing 24.55 in the 200 which equalled Britney Wattley’s 5-year old 200m National Scholastic Record. Sprint Tech’s Tarika Moses and Lakeisha Warner came home second and third in 25.26 and 25.35 respectively.

The Top Notch Track Club athlete then ran 12.05 in the 100m for the double, leaving Moses and Warner to finish in the same order with times of 12.40 and 12.41. Their respective times in the 100/200m along with Sprint Tech Track Club’s Taylor Hill’s 12.22, met the IAAF World Youth Championships qualifying standard of 12.45 seconds.

Kelsha Fortune ran 1:00.24 in the girls U17 400m, leading home Keshena Fleming, Anique Daniel and Akada Charles.

In the U14 Girls 80m, the fast emerging Raw Skills Club from Virgin Gorda finished one, two, three led by Shaquana Stevens in 11.19, Shaniyah Caul in 11.28 and Kiara Griffith in 11.67. Over the longer distances, Raw Skills again showed their growing talents under the guidance of Erwin “Reds” Telemaque, unfortunately the official results did not include their times, which might be down to the fact a race had to be squeezed in for them with the Ferry back to Virgin Gorda waiting at the dock. “It’s been a challenge and we are only three months old,” commented Telemaque. “We have kids with just like our name says- raw skills. Basically though, look out for all our athletes because they are all up and coming.”

The Meet had suffered from a late start in the morning and the afternoon session also began an hour after the published re-start times. A smallish crowd amused themselves as no announcements were made as to what the reason for the delay was.

Another budding rivalry intensified In the U17 Boys 200m when Top Notch Track Club’s Deshawn Douglas avenged an opening loss to Fast Lane Track Club’s Kyron Mc Master, breaking the tape in 22.69, edging McMaster by .03 in 22.72.

Kendall Davis edged out the pair on the night though with his time of 22.29.

Douglas sliced his best from 22.98 when he lost to Mc Master who ran 22.68 on January 12, 2013. Both have now met the IAAF World Youth standard. Douglas returned to snatch a 400m victory in a personal best of 50.28, eclipsing the 50.79 from his season opener. His mark is .28 off the Carifta Games standard.

On the field, U17 Girls, Kala Penn and Ashley Penn, both recorded personal bests and shifted the All Time marks in the event as they qualified for the Carifta Games.

Kala, who came within 15cms of the Carifta Games standard in her last outing, cut the sand at 5.55m (18’2½”) improving her best of 5.41m (17’9”) from last year. She became the seventh athlete over 5.50m (18’0½”) in the Territory’s history. Her Top Notch Track Club teammate, competing in the Heptathlon, leapt to a personal best of 5.36m (17’7”), moving to #7 on the All Time Top 10 list behind Kala, after improving from 5.28m (17’3¾”) on her second attempt.  

The focus on the day had been the Pentathlon and Heptathlon events in preparation for the July 29 & 30 CAC Age Group Championships in Curacao, with the competition attracting participants from St. Thomas and St. Croix.

In the Boys 13-14 Heptathlon, St. Thomas’ Amed Joseph tallied 3112 points in six of the seven events as they skipped the Ball Throw, for the highest score. Rackeel Jack amassed 2691 and St. Croix’s Lamar Miller, 2661.

Xiomara “Gia” Malone won the 11-12 Girls Pentathlon, scoring 1729 points in four of five events. Deborah Smith followed with 1584 and Zara Brown accumulated 1516.

Malone didn’t finish outside the top 3 in any of her events and took top honours in the High Jump with a 1.31 effort “Malone jumped exceptionally well today, “ noted coach Omar Jones. “She improved from around 1.15 last time so we are very pleased. She thinks she is going to be better than her sister and who can doubt her!”

Ralston Henry had bought out a lot of his Francis Lettsome School athletes and was also happy with the way things had gone despite the lack of facility in the East End area. “We did pretty well in the high jump considering we don’t have a high jump bed,” he commented. “Anasha Fergus jumped real good having had only one session to practice, the boys did well too and although we have room for improvement we will build on what we saw today.”

In the Boys’ equivalent, J’Quaan Smith tallied 1965 points to Keon Edwards’ 1827.

The Girls Pentathlon saw Ashley Penn scoring 2317 points. Ashley Marie McCall’s score was affected after amassing 1802 while pulling up lame in the 800m. Shanakay Wheatley had 1224 points in her first attempt at the discipline.