分类： sports

ST GEORGE’S, GRENADA — The 53rd edition of the Carifta Games, hosted at Grenada’s Kirani James Athletic Stadium, saw Jamaica solidify its dominant position in the tournament on Monday, adding three more medals — two gold and one silver — to its growing tally during the penultimate competition session of the event.

For the second consecutive day, wet weather forced delays to the competition schedule, but poor conditions did not slow Jamaica’s top young athletes. Two standout performances delivered gold for the delegation: Zavien Bernard claimed top honors in the girls’ Under-20 high jump, and Shamanda Wilmot secured first place in the girls’ Under-17 javelin throw. Talshawn Edwards added a silver to the country’s day total with a strong performance in the boys’ Under-17 long jump.

With only one final competition session remaining, Jamaica is on track to secure another overall tournament victory, holding a substantial lead in the overall medal table. The Caribbean nation has already collected 47 total medals, split evenly between 17 gold and 17 silver, with an additional 13 bronze medals.

Trinidad and Tobago holds the second position in the overall rankings with 26 total medals: seven gold, nine silver, and 10 bronze. The Bahamas follows in third with 19 total medals, including six gold, eight silver, and five bronze. Guyana sits in fourth place, having earned five medals (three gold, one silver, one bronze), while Barbados rounds out the top five with nine total medals: two gold, two silver, and five bronze.

For Bernard, Monday’s gold medal marked a personal redemption after underwhelming results in the long jump and triple jump events earlier in the competition. The young athlete, who won the Under-17 high jump gold at the Carifta Games two years ago, matched her 2024 season best clearance of 1.78 meters to take the top spot on the podium. Jah’kyla Morton of the British Virgin Islands took home silver, breaking her country’s national record with a 1.76-meter clearance, while Alexandria Komolafe of Curaçao claimed bronze with a 1.70-meter jump.

Wilmot’s gold medal win was one of the most dramatic moments of the day. Trailing defending champion Zonique Charles of Antigua and Barbuda heading into the final round of the competition, Wilmot threw a new personal best of 46.39 meters, surpassing Charles’ previous leading throw of 46.27 meters to claim first place. Niaviv Matrona earned Curaçao its second bronze medal of the session with a throw of 41.52 meters.

Edwards continued his strong run of individual results at the tournament, adding a silver in the long jump to the silver he earned in the triple jump on Sunday. The Jamaican athlete posted a best jump of 6.71 meters, finishing second behind leader Michal Paul of Trinidad and Tobago, who secured gold with a 6.93-meter jump in the opening round. Randal Monroe of St Lucia took bronze with a 6.60-meter jump.

Beyond the medal events completed on Monday morning, Jamaica also advanced two athletes to the final of each of the three sprint hurdles preliminary competitions held during the session. Macaela Gordon (13.45 seconds) and Tashana Godfrey (13.51 seconds) led qualifying for the girls’ Under-17 sprint hurdles. In the girls’ Under-20 100m hurdles, Tiana Marshall (13.40 seconds) and Akeelah Bell (13.62 seconds) posted the fastest qualifying times to advance. For the boys’ Under-20 110m hurdles, Romario Jibbison (13.76 seconds) and Robert Miller (13.70 seconds) both earned spots in the afternoon final.

The 53rd edition of the Carifta Games, one of the Caribbean’s most prestigious youth track and field competitions, entered its second day of competition on Sunday at the purpose-built Kirani James Athletics Stadium in St George’s, Grenada, delivering a mix of triumph and disappointment for pre-event favorite Jamaica across the day’s sprint relay finals. Of the four sprint relay gold medals up for grabs on the day, Jamaica claimed only one victory, secured by its dynamic women’s Under-20 quartet. The team, composed of Renecia Edwards, Tiana Marshall, and 100m medalists Natrece East and Shanoya Douglas, crossed the finish line in a solid time of 43.76 seconds, outpacing second-place Trinidad and Tobago (44.17 seconds) and third-place Barbados (45.40 seconds) to claim the top spot on the podium.

Jamaica’s other relay teams did not manage to replicate that gold-medal success: both the girls’ Under-17 and boys’ Under-20 squads earned hard-fought silver medals, while the boys’ Under-17 team was forced to retire from the race after a dropped baton derailed their second exchange, ending their bid for a medal before the final handoff.

Even with the underwhelming relay performance, Jamaica entered Monday’s final day of competition with an unchallenged lead atop the overall medal table, boasting a total haul of 43 medals split between 15 gold, 16 silver, and 12 bronze. Defending its top spot from previous editions, Jamaica holds a comfortable lead over second-place Trinidad and Tobago, which has collected 25 total medals (7 gold, 9 silver, 9 bronze). The Bahamas sit third in the standings with 21 medals: 6 gold, 9 silver, and 6 bronze. Rounding out the top five competing nations, Guyana holds fourth place with 3 gold, 1 silver, and 1 bronze for a total of 5 medals, while host nation Grenada sits fifth with 2 gold, 2 silver, and 6 bronze for a 10-medal total.

Sunday’s competition also delivered a string of standout individual performances from Jamaican athletes, even outside the relay track. Earlier in the day, Jamaican hurdlers completed a historic clean sweep, taking home all four gold medals on offer in the 400m hurdles events across age and gender categories. One of the day’s most impressive individual wins came from teenage distance runner Javaughn Tomlin, who claimed his second gold medal of the Games by taking first place in the Under-17 boys’ 3000m, adding to the 1500m title he won on Saturday. Tomlin took control of the race from the opening laps, pulling ahead of the pack early and maintaining his lead through the final stretch to win comfortably in a time of 9:12.49. Bermuda’s Sanchez Smith took silver with 9:22.24, while Barbados’ Zindzele Renwick-Williams claimed bronze in 9:26.95.

In other individual results, Jamaica’s Sushana Johnson secured third place in the open women’s 3000m with a time of 10:26.90, finishing behind gold medalist Aniqah Bailey of Trinidad and Tobago (10:14.10) and silver medalist Laila McIntyre of Barbados (10:15.61). In the men’s decathlon, Jaquan Souden improved on his fourth-place finish from the 2023 Carifta Games to take silver, tallying a total of 6,760 points. Gold went to Trinidad and Tobago’s Tyrique Vincent, who finished with 6,824 points, while Vincent’s teammate Kaleb Campbell took bronze with 6,598 points.

In the Under-20 men’s high jump, Jamaica’s Michael Neil claimed third place after clearing 2.00m — the same height reached by gold medalist David Hall of Turks and Caicos and silver medalist Joshua Williams of the Bahamas. Finally, in the Under-17 girls’ long jump, Dashanelle Clarke of Jamaica took third place with a jump of 5.54m. The gold medal went to defending champion Jazae Johnson of the Bahamas, who retained her title with a leading jump of 6.02m, while Johnson’s teammate took home silver with a 5.70m jump.

LONDON, United Kingdom – The global sports community is mourning the loss of Craig Reedie, the pioneering British sports administrator who led the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and was instrumental in securing London’s hosting rights for the 2012 Olympic Games, who has passed away at the age of 84. The confirmation of his death was made public on Monday by sports leaders who paid tribute to his decades-long legacy in international sport.

Current WADA President Witold Banka honored Reedie’s contributions in an official statement, remembering him as a paragon of integrity and a lifelong advocate for clean, fair competition. “With Sir Craig’s passing, we have lost a true gentleman and clean sport champion,” Banka said. “He was a man of great integrity and, as a sportsman at heart, he believed that sport shows us it is always possible to do better – a belief he applied to his leadership of WADA.”

Before stepping into global anti-doping leadership, Reedie built his career as both an athlete and an administrator. A competitive international badminton player who represented Great Britain during his playing career, he was elected president of the International Badminton Federation in 1981. During his tenure, he achieved a defining career milestone: successfully campaigning to secure badminton’s permanent inclusion as an Olympic medal sport starting at the 1992 Barcelona Games.

From 1992 to 2005, Reedie chaired the British Olympic Association (BOA), a role that put him at the center of Britain’s push to host the Summer Olympics. At the time, Paris was widely considered the clear favorite to win hosting rights for the 2012 Games, but Reedie’s strategic guidance and behind-the-scenes work laid the groundwork for London’s stunning upset victory in the bidding process. Sebastian Coe, who led London’s bid committee and now serves as president of World Athletics, called Reedie a critical influence on his career and the success of the 2012 Games. In a post on X, Coe remembered Reedie as “my mentor, wise counsel, passionate advisor, and great friend,” adding, “Without Craig and his leadership of the British Olympic Association, we may never have won the right to host London 2012.”

Reedie went on to hold a series of top global sports roles, including vice-president of the International Olympic Committee, before serving as WADA president from 2014 to 2019. His tenure at the anti-doping body was not without controversy: in 2018, WADA voted to lift a three-year suspension on Russian athletes that had been imposed over evidence of state-sponsored doping at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. The decision drew widespread criticism from athlete advocacy groups and national sports organizations around the world, marking a contentious final chapter of his leadership.

Despite the controversy of his later career, tributes from across the global sports landscape have emphasized Reedie’s lasting impact on expanding the Olympic movement and advancing the cause of anti-doping, cementing his status as one of British sport’s most influential figures of the past 50 years.