Devin Augustine, last year's Carifta Games boys Under-17 100 metres champion, was among 15 athletes meeting the standards yesterday on day two of the trials for the annual premier track and field event. The Games are carded to take place in Bermuda from April 10-13.
On Sunday at the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Port-of-Spain, it was in the semifinals of the men's U-20 200m that saw the first two across the line going under the standard of 21.38 seconds. Augustine, running in a 2.7 wind, won with 20.98, to also meet the World U-20 Championships mark, at the two-day meet hosted by the National Association of Athletics Administration of T&T.
Following the Point Fortin New Jets' (PFNJ) sprinter was Abilene Wildcats' Dominic Cole, who advanced to the final with a 21.45-clocking. Only Cole faced the starter in the final and he placed fifth with 22.39.
They were the lone athletes excelling on the track as another 10 athletes achieved the Carifta standard over on the field while the other three were in the multi-discipline events—octathlon and pentathlon.
Fulfilling Athletics' Antonia Sealy, another medallist at last year's Games, was at her best dominating the girls' Open pentathlon which she copped one of two silver medals.
She tallied 4,768 points to surpass the 4,205-standard with scores of 14.97 (846) in the 100m hurdles, 1.53m (655) in the high jump, in the shot put 11.37m (619) and clocked 25.54 (838) in the 200m on day one, Saturday, to hold the lead with 2,958 points. She returned the following day to earn scores of 5.38m (665) in the long jump, 38.49m (638) in the javelin and in the 800m, crossed in 2:45.87 to collect 507 points.
In the boys Open octathlon, the top two finishers went past the standard (5,100) with Joel Andrews of D'Abadie Progressive Athletic winning with 5,251 and Anthony Diaz (PFNJ) second with 5,112. Andrews had scores of 11.50 (753) in the 100m, 6.06m (600) in the long jump, 12.39m (630) in the shot put and in the 400m, 51.67 (739) on day one while on the second day, his scores were 16.02 (730) 110m in the hurdles, 1.88m (696) in the high jump, in the javelin 47.64m (554) and the 1,500m 5:01.94 (549).
For Diaz, his scores were 10.85 (894), 6.59m (718), 11.40m (570), 52.39 (708), 16.33 (696), 1.70m (544), 45.62m (524) and 5:18.50 (458), respectively.
Among the others marking the standard were jumpers Janae De Gannes (Concorde) in the Girls U-17 long jump with 5.68m (Standard 5.50m); Kelsey Daniel (Kaizen Panthers) in the boys U-20 long jump (7.26m) with 7.28; boys U-17 high jump (1.90m) winner Jaidi James (Tobago Falcons) and second-place finisher Aaron Antoine (Neon Wolves), both matching the qualifying mark.
For the throwers, Jeron James of Mercury went past the 43.00m-mark in the boys U-17 discus with 49.50m and his clubmate Lalenii Grant in the girls' version of the event. She surpassed the 34.00m Carifta standard with her best throw measuring 36.58m.
The boys U-17 javelin final saw the top four finishers meeting the qualifying mark of 46.00m. Winner Dorian Charles (PFNJ) sent the spear 55.16m, Chavez Meloney (Toco Tafac) was the runner-up with 51.24m while third-place Le Bron James, (Tobago Falcons) 48.65m and Jaden Kirton (Toco Titans) had marks of 48.65m and 48.42m, respectively.
Another notable performer was Shaniqua Bascombe, who met the World U-20 qualifying standard of 24.35, with her 24.18-clocking in the Girls U-20 200m semifinals. She just missed the Carifta qualifying time of 24.10.
