Terrelonge, Dunkley to take 100m titles at Carifta Trials
EDWIN ALLEN High’s ace sprinter, Theianna-Lee Terrelonge, will be hoping to continue her ‘red hot’ early season form in the 100 metres when she compete sin the preliminary round of the under20 girls’ event on today’s opening day of the three-day Carifta Trials.
The country’s top under-17 and under-20 athletes will be hoping to book their tickets to the Carifta Games, which is scheduled to take place in St George’s, Grenada, over the Easter weekend. With the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Athletics Championships (Champs) just two weeks away, some outstanding results are expected both on the track and in the field as athletes warm up for the ‘big dance’.
Track events will start at 5 p.m. with the preliminary round of the Under-17 Boys’400 metres. Action in eight field events finals starts at 4:30 p.m. with the girls’ under-17 shot put.
Terrelonge, the double sprint champion at last year’s National Junior Championships, i s the fastest female schoolgirl this season in her first year in Class Two. With a season’s and personal best of 11.30 seconds in the 100 metres, she will have the likes of Class Two counterparts Sabrina Dockery (11.45) of Lacovia High and Muschett High’s Shanoya Douglas (11.74) along with Hydel High’s Class One athlete, Aaliah Baker (11.59), to contend with.
After winning the under17 100m at the Trials last year, Wolmer’s Girls’ Class Three athlete, Natrece East, will be hoping to repeat. With a season’s best of 11.67, she looks well set to dominate this age group again.
Like Terrelonge, former St Elizabeth Technical sprinter Javorne Dunkley went on to be crowned double sprint under-20 champion at the National Junior Championships. After forfeiting his final year of eligibility at Champs and moving to the Elite Performance Track Club, Dunkley will not be able to get his chance to make up for his disappointment last year in the 100m when he was disqualified in the semifinals of the Class One event for false-starting.
With a season’s best 10.29, he is joint number one on the World Under-20 top list in the event, along with the Australian Sebastian Sultana. However, the likes of Jamaica College’s Hector Benjamin (10.34), St Jago High’s Raheem Pinnock (10.47) and Kingston College’s Yourie Clarke (10.55) could make things difficult for him.
Today will also see preliminaryround action on the track in the 400m and 1500m in both age groups for boys and girls. The under-20 girls’ 400m will feature Hydel’s Abigail Campbell and Edwin Allen’s Kellyann Carr, who have both gone sub-54 seconds this season.
Calabar High’s outstanding Class Two athlete, Nickecoy Bramwell, who has gone sub-47 seconds twice this season, should continue his impressive form in the under-17 boys’ one-lap event.
Defending under-20 long and triple jump champion Jade Ann Dawkins of St Jago looks a cinch once again to go all the way in the girls’ long jump finals on today’s opening day.
Among the boys, Jamaica College’s Shaiquan Dunn, formerly of St. Jago ,who copped silver in both the Under-20 shot put and discus last year at the Carifta Games, should continue his unbeaten form this season when he contests the shot put final today.