St George’s, Grenada (CARIFTA GAMES) : JAMAICA leads with 55 medals after 2 days of competition...Three Jamaicans shatter Carifta records on day two....PALAS recipient SHANICE LOVE of XLCR high wins GOLD at the games....CONGRATS!

BY PAUL A REID Observer writer reidp@jamaicaobserver.com  Monday, March 28, 2016  

Defending champions Jamaica were well on their way to retaining their hold on the Carifta Games title for a 32nd straight year as they continued to pile up medals on yesterday’s second day of the 45th staging at the National Stadium in St George’s, Grenada.

Among the many winners yesterday were three record-breakers in the individual events with Zico Campbell in the Under-18 Boys’ shot put and intermediate hurdlers Shiann Salmon and Shannon Kalawan.

The Under-18 Boys’ 4x100m team also set a new record 40.40 seconds as they swept all four sprint relays.

Aiko Jones in action for Jamaica in the Girls’ Under-18 discus
at the Carifta Games at the Grenada National Stadium
 yesterday. Jones threw a personal best 46.49 metres to win gold.

At the end of the day, Jamaica was well set on a preliminary count of 55 medals — 26 gold, 18 silver and 11 bronze — well ahead of Barbados with three gold, five silver and five bronze and Guadeloupe with three gold and a bronze. Bahamas, with two gold in their 18 medals and Trinidad and Tobago also with two gold in their 10 medals, were fourth and fifth, respectively.

The championships end today with two more sessions covering 25 more finals. To be contested in the morning are the Girls’ Under-18 javelin, Girls’ Under-20 high jump, and Boys’ Under-18 long jump.

Shanice at Practice in Grenada
 - courtesy Track Alerts

In the afternoon session will be the Girls’ Under-20 javelin, Girls’ Under-18 triple jump, Boys’ Under-20 shot put, all four sprint hurdles finals, Boys’ Under-20 triple jump, Boys’ Under-18 discus throw, the finals in the four 800m events, finals in the four 200m events, Boys’ Under-20 5,000m and the four-mile relays.

All three medallists in the Boys’ Under-18 shot put were over the old mark of 17.56m, set last year by Trinidad’s Isaiah Taylor, with Jamaica’s Campbell winning with 17.75m on his first attempt.

His teammate Rasheeda Downer took silver at 17.57m with Barbados’s Triston Gibbons taking bronze with 16.64m.

Salmon and Kalawan also went under the old marks in the Girls’ Under-18 and Under-20 400m hurdles, respectively, as Jamaica won three of the four gold medals on offer.

Salmon, who was winning her second gold medal after she won the high jump on Saturday, clocked 59.50 seconds to win the event ahead of teammate Sanique Walker and Gabriel Gibson of The Bahamas.

Kalawan dominated the field with an impressive 56.29 seconds to beat The Bahamas’ Lakeisha Warner (58.14 seconds), with Jamaica’s Nicolee Foster in third place in 58.34 seconds. more