Guyana retain IGG ‘Goodwill’ Athletics title

Oct 23, 2016 Sports

Guyana retained its Inter-Guiana Games (IGG) Goodwill athletics title yesterday at the National Track and Field Centre, maintaining its composure through an hour-long ‘blackout’ that affected the flood lamps at the

DOMINANCE! The 2016 victorious IGG ‘Goodwill’ Athletics team pose for a photo opportunity after dominating the competition against Suriname.

facility.
Eventually, after waiting in complete darkness, the Guyanese continued their inevitable march to the title, amassing 373 points in the male competition and 253 points in the female contest to run away with the title yet again.
The power outage came at around 7:45 and was never restored until an hour later, prompting the guests at the facility to use their phones as navigation. The IGG ‘Goodwill’ competition is an international event that featured Suriname. French Guiana did not participate this year.
Guyana’s Kenisha Phillips and Compton Caesar took sprint doubles with Joanna Archer dominating the middle distances. Most of the races featured four athletes, two Guyanese and two Surinamese.
Phillips, Caesar and Archer, on their first appearance at this event, raced to two gold medals apiece in the individual and also went on to assist with relay wins.
Phillips clocked 11.98 seconds to take her first medal in the 100m on day one, returning yesterday to stomp her authority in the 200m. She did so in a time of 24.93 seconds. She was also part of the 4x100m team that clocked 49.63 seconds for the win.
Caesar took the 100m in 10.57 seconds, and the 200m in 21.70 seconds. Archer won the 800m in 2:23.74s, and the 1500m in 5:23.14s.
Avon Samuels was the girls’ 400m champion with a time of 58.09 seconds. Chantoba Bright, after consistently clearing 6m this year, dipped under the mark, but still managed to take the win in the girls’ long jump with a distance of 5.77m.
Other Guyanese medal winners included Tabitha Bowman in the girls’ 3000m (11:49.00s), Odwin Tudor who won the boys’ 1500m (4:11.92s) and 5000m (16:01.05s), Anfernee Headecker in the boys’ 800m (1:58.44s).