RACHAEL THOMP­SON-KING

Par­a­lymic gold medal­list Akeem Stew­art was one of five lo­cal ath­letes meet­ing the stan­dard in their re­spec­tive events at the Pre-Com­mon­wealth Meet host­ed by the Na­tion­al As­so­ci­a­tion of Ath­let­ics Ad­min­is­tra­tions of T&T (NAAATT) on the week­end at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um, Mu­cu­rapo.

The field spe­cial­ist achieved the feat in two events, the men's shot put on Sat­ur­day, re­turn­ing the fol­low­ing day to dom­i­nate the dis­cus throw to book his spot on Team TTO for the Gold Coast Com­mon­wealth Games in Aus­tralia from April 4-15.

The oth­ers mak­ing the re­quired stan­dards were Abi­lene Wild­cats sprint­ers Kyle Greaux in the men's 200 me­tres and Re­yare Thomas in the women's 100 me­tres, javelin throw­er Shakiel Wait­he (un­at­tached) and jumper And­wuelle Wright (Un­at­tached).

Stew­art of Fal­cons sur­passed the qual­i­fy­ing mark of 18.50m in the shot put in his sec­ond try, with a throw of 18.68m af­ter open­ing with a 17.89m at­tempt. The oth­er com­peti­tor in the event, Hezekiel Romeo (Un­at­tached), best try reached 18.20.

In the dis­cus event on Sun­day, Stew­art's tar­get was 58.00m and he went past it in his first at­tempt which mea­sured 58.20m. Quin­cy Wil­son was the oth­er ath­lete com­pet­ing in the event but fell short of the mark with his best be­ing, 57.18m.

Still on the field that day, Wait­he got over the 74.00m-stan­dard in the men's javelin on his third toss of 79.90m. His lone com­peti­tor Guyanese Leslain Baird al­so made the qual­i­fy­ing stan­dard with a 74.76m-throw.

Lat­er that evening, Kyle Greaux raced past the qual­i­fy­ing stan­dard in the men's 200m of 20.50 sec­onds, cross­ing in a time of 20.40. He beat Jalen Pur­cell of Sim­plex (21.08) and Abi­lene's Nathan Far­in­ha (21.33) to the line, re­spec­tive­ly.

In the women's ver­sion of the race, no run­ner met the stan­dard of 23.20. Thomas, clocked 23.50 to fin­ish ahead of Ka­maria Du­rant (Sim­plex) in 24.02 and na­tion­al ju­nior sprint cham­pi­on Khal­i­fa St Fort (Un­at­tached) in 24.50.

Thomas was how­ev­er the day be­fore, faster than the qual­i­fy­ing time of 11.34 in the women's 100m, win­ning the dash in 11.21. Sec­ond was Con­corde's Je­nea Spinks in 11.59 and third Du­rant in 11.60.

The men's race had no run­ner mak­ing the re­quired stan­dard of 10.20 sec­onds with the win­ner Abi­lene's Jonathan Far­in­ha fin­ish­ing just 0.01-sec­ond off the time in 10.21. Reign­ing na­tion­al men's 100m cham­pi­on Em­manuel Cal­len­der (Mem­phis Pi­o­neers) was sec­ond in 10.22 and third was Far­in­ha's twin broth­er Nathan in 10.30.

Al­so on Sat­ur­day, Wright booked his spot in the men's long jump event leap­ing 8.07m to out­do the re­quired dis­tance of 7.70m.

Qual­i­fiers

Men's Shot Put (Stan­dard - 18.50m)

Akeem Stew­art (Fal­cons) - 18.68m

Men's Dis­cus (Stan­dard - 58.00m)

Akeem Stew­art (Fal­cons) - 58.20m

Men's Long Jump (Stan­dard - 7.70m)

And­wuelle Wright (Un­at­tached) - 8.07m (3.5/Wind)

Men's Javelin Throw (Stan­dard - 74.00m)

Shakiel Wait­he (Un­at­tached) - 79.90m

Men's 200m (Stan­dard - 20.50 secs)

Kyle Greaux (Abi­lene) - 20.40 (3.9/Wind)

Women's 100m (Stan­dard - 11.34 secs)

Re­yare Thomas (Abi­lene) - 11.21 (3.8/Wind)