National long jump record holder Tyra Gittens-Spotsville earned this country’s first medal at the North American, Central American and Caribbean (NACAC) Area Track and Field Championships when he got bronze in the women’s long jump final in Freeport, Grand Bahama, Bahamas on Friday night.
A tenth-placed finisher at the Tokyo Olympics, Gittens-Spotsville, who holds the national women’s long jump record (6.96 metres), secured the bronze with a best attempt of 6,64 metres, the same as silver medal winner Alysbeth Felix of Puerto Rico, and both behind AmericanAlyssa Jones who took gold with a best attempt of 6.74m.
WHile Gittens-Spotsville was able to secure the bronze, the Kaizen Panthers still fell short of qualifying for this year’s World Championships in Tokyo, Japan, from September 13 to 21 as her attempt was short of 6.86m standard.
Today, Nicholas Landeau, a double Carifta winner, will go after the gold medal in the men’s 800m final from 6.35 pm after he secured a spot in the final as the fifth-placed finisher in heat two and the second-fastest loser with a time of one minute, 49.59 seconds.
In his heat Landeau finished behind the quartet of USA’s Brandon Miller (1:46.14 minutes), Jamaican Navasky Anderson (1:46.85), Canada’s Abdullahi Hassan (1:47.05), and Puerto Rican John Rivera, the first-fastest loser in 1:47.23.
However, in the first men’s 800m semifinal heat, T&T’s other entrant, Zalen Nelson, ran a disappointing 1:49.82 for the fourth spot and missed out on advancing as the ninth best overall, one spot behind Landeau.
The trio of Handal Roban of St Vincent and the Grenadines (1:48.96), Jamaican Tyrice Taylor (1:49.12) and Canada’s Matti Erickson (1:49.18) were the top three finishers to secure their places in the two-lap gold medal run.
Earlier on Friday, Christopher Crawford and Umar Sandy were the first T&T athletes in action in the discus throw final but placed outside of the medals in the fifth and seventh positions, respectively, with their best efforts being 56.45 m and 53.20 m, respectively.
Crawford had two other legal throws of 55.28 m on his second attempt and 51.16 m on his fifth and penultimate effort, while Sandy’s other successful attempt came on his second throw of 51.10 m.
Jamaican Fedrick Dacres won gold via his third attempt of 65.10 m, while USA’s Sam Mattis secured the silver with a best of 64.06 m, and another Jamaican, Chad Wright, got bronze with a best of 62.85 m.
In the women’s 100m sprints, Akilah Lewis was a disappointing sixth in heat two in 11.63 seconds and failed to advance to the final with the top three in the heat, Canada’s Sade Mc Creath (11.11), Jamaica’s Jonielle Smith (11.21) and Bahamian Camille Rutherford (11.32) the qualifiers.
Lewis’ brother, Omari Lewis, and Jaden De Souza also did not advance from their respective men’s 100m semifinals.
This was after Lewis was second in heat one in 10.47 to finish behind Barbadian Kuron Griffith, who qualified for the final in a time of 10.39, while De Souza was fifth in the fourth and final heat, also in 10.47, with Canada’s Elizer Adjibi, the lone qualifier for the final in 10.23.
Up to press time, Christopher was still involved in their respective competitions along with Hezekiel Romeo.
Also on Friday night, two-time Carifta Boys’ Under-20 5,000 m champion Tafari Waldron was expected to be on the starting line in the men’s 5,000 m eight-man final along with long-distance runner Nicholas Romany.
On Saturday, Landeau will join Romany in the 1,500m, with the latter coming off a new personal best of 3:50.67 minutes to take the national title last month, while Landeau won the national 800m title. Kelsey Daniel takes to action in the men’s long jump, and the duo of Jaden De Souza and Elijah Joseph are in the men’s 200m semifinals.
Multiple Olympic medal winner Keshorn Walcott was second in the men’s javelin (83.94), while Jerod Elcock, Eric Harrison Jr, Asa Guevera and Kyle Greaux teamed up to cop the runner-up spot in the men’s 4x100m (38.94).
Local athletes last tasted gold at the meet at the 2018 edition in Toronto, Canada, when Greaux raced to the men’s 200m gold in a meet record of 20.11.