Compton Caesar races into history with CARIFTA 100m win

Apr 17, 2017 Sports

– Hooper also leaps to gold medal

Guyana’s Compton Caesar raced into history Saturday night in Curacao when he became the first male athlete from this country to win a CARIFTA Games Under-20 Boys’ 100metre gold medal in a stunning performance.
Some commentators described the race as “chaotic” owed to the three starts that the event underwent before it finally got going. In the first attempt under starters’ orders, the Bahamian representative was the first causality in a false start.
In another attempt to get the race going, the Antiguan representative followed suit with a false start and held up the race further in what appeared to be a protest of what was a clear jumping of the gun when commentators went for the video replay.
Throughout all this drama, Caesar was calm and appeared very focused. He had already thrown his name in the bag by reaching the final. With the race down to six competitors and under the starters’ orders for the third time, Caesar exploded out the block like a rocket for a perfect start that catapulted him ahead pass the 60m mark.
At this stage, the race seemed clearly in favour of Caesar until Barbados’ Jaquone Hoyte came storming into the frame. Caesar and Hoyte leaned at the line in a photo finish that was handed to Caesar after careful review. Both Caesar and Hoyte clocked 10.46 seconds.
Before Caesar’s feat no other Guyanese male had ever won the Carifta Games 100m.
Jamaica’s Jelanie Walker was third in10.61seconds. The triumph for Caesar completes a well-deserved sojourn for the athlete as a junior and fitting reward for the Christianburg/Wismar Secondary School-bred athlete, who made the Commonwealth Junior finals in the both 100m and 200m. The exposure obviously paid off for Caesar.
Meanwhile, United States-based, Natricia Hooper won a gold medal in the Girl’s Under-20 triple jump with a come-from-behind leap of 13.08m. Jamaica’s Tissanna Hickling was second with a 12.87m mark, while British Virgin Islands’ Kala Penn (12.73m) was third.
Anfernee Headecker captured a silver medal in the Boys’ Under-20 1500m, finishing in a time of 3:55.83 behind Jamaica’s Ackeen Colley. Claudrice McKoy was also among the medals securing bronze in the Girls’ U-18 1500m with a time of 4:50.88.
Jamaica’s Shaquena Foote won the event in a time of 4:45.51s. Also performing on day one of the marquee regional competition were Chantoba Bright, who finished seventh in the Girls’ High Jump U-18 event and Tremaine Browne who finished sixth in the Boys’ U-18Long Jump.
From day one, Guyana has secured two gold medals, one silver and one bronze from its 12 athletes in Curacao for the CARIFTA Games.
Meanwhile, reports from yesterday state that Claudrice McKoy won Guyana’s third Gold medal. She finished ahead of the field in the 3000M with a time of ten minutes, 39.03 seconds (10:39.03), beating the Jamaican pair of Britnie Dixon (10:44.63) and Kayan Green (10:45.76).

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