Former national sprint champion Emmanuel Callender anchored the Memphis Pioneers Athletic Club to victory in the men’s 4x100 metres relay, to help them their Republic Bank National Association of Athletics Administrations (NAAA) Relay Festival title at the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Port-of-Spain on Sunday.
In a tight race, Callender partnered with Reuben Walters, Clement Campbell and Ian Thomas to win section two in 40.13 seconds and emerge the overall winner to earn the full 10 points. The Abilene Wildcats team of Jonathan Baker, Jerod Elcock, Dan-Neil Telesford and Adell Colthrust, running in that order, was narrowly beaten to the line with 40.16 for eight points. Taking third place was invited team Abilene “B's” unit of John-Mark Constantine, Darryl Brown, Judah Taylor and Nathan Farinha with 40.90. Their win in section one was not counted toward points.
Memphis Pioneers won the Relay Festival by 31 points from the champion juvenile and junior club Cougars. Memphis Pioneers amassed a total of 267 points to Cougars’ 236 points in what turned out to be a thriller.
Cougars struck first in the opening event, which catered for the Mixed Open 4x800 metres. The foursome of Joanna Rogers, Ashton Gill, Caliyah Wallace and Ethan Forde proved too much to handle for their rivals. Cougars recorded a time of 8:48.63 for the distance, while Silver Bullet team of Kareem Ramjohn, Camile Lewis, Christiemarie Maharaj and Reuel Lewis, running in that order, was second, recording the time of 8:54.92, with Memphis Pioneers (Aarin Simon, Shakiah Phillips, Stefan Camejo, Atiya Croal) back in third with 9:16.52.
In the second event, the Mixed 4 x100 metres Open, the Point Fortin New Jets (PFNJ) quartet of Akeera Esdelle, Naomi Campbell, Onil Mitchell and Onal Mitchell proved too strong for Abilene Wildcats and Cougars. PFNJ registered the time of 1:32.40 for the win, with Abilene Wildcats posting a 1:33.20 while Cougars registered a time of 1:34.16.
In the first rotation of the Festival, Cougars won seven of the relays with Memphis winning four, which set up the battle of the two top Port-of-Spain teams.
However, in the second phase of the competition, Memphis Pioneers went into top gear and reeled off six wins to join issue with Cougars at the top of the standings.
In the women’s 4x100m race, it was Reyare Thomas anchoring the Abilene team, which also included Brianna Lord, Janeil Bellille and Tsai-Anne Joseph, to victory with a time of 45.98, ahead of Simplex (Jayda Williams, Kamaria Durant, Kyah La Fortune, Leah Bertrand) with 47.09 and Memphis (J’Da Browne, Rae-Anne Serville, Nicola Pesnell, Jeneil Morris) with 47.12.
Deon Lendore featured in the 4x400m for Abilene and he along with Asa Guevara, Judah Taylor and Ohdel James raced to victory in 3:08.19, while in the women’s version of the race, the Memphis quartet of Nicola Pesnell, Jeneil Morris, Jeunice Maxime and Rae-Anne Serville won with a time of 3:49.22.
The inclement weather threatened to stop the proceedings at one stage and after a meeting with the coaches of the 12 clubs which were participating, a decision was taken to finish the Festival.
In the end, Memphis Pioneers were victorious with Cougars in the second and Abilene Wildcats (159) in third. Fourth place was taken by Simplex Athletic Club (140).