CARIFTA Games 2024: Springer, Austin, Hinckson bag gold on day 1

Guyana began CARIFTA Games 2024 on a high note, with the trio of Tianna Springer, Malachi Austin and Athaleyha Hinckson living up to high expectations by capturing gold in their respective events on day 1.
After rewriting his personal best time in the Heat round earlier on Saturday at the Kirani James Athletics Stadium in Grenada, Austin stormed across the finish line in 46.35s to capture gold in the Under-20 400 metre race. Jamaica’s Marchinho Rose was second in 46.59s, while Grenada’s Joshiem Sylvester completed the podium in 46.93s.
Tianna Springer was untouchable in the female version of this event. Clocking 52.31s for the gold medal, she finished the race ahead of Jamaica’s Abigail Campbell, who cliched silver in 52.85s, and Jamaican Shanique Williams, who finished third in 53.03s. The other Guyanese in the race, Narissa McPherson, missed out on a podium position in finishing 5th with a time of 54.72s.

Athaleyha Hinckson registered two personal best times on Saturday. The first one came in the girls’ 100M preliminaries, wherein she clocked 11.86s to punch her ticket to the final. Once there, Hinckson sprinted ahead of her fellow competitors, and stopped the clock at 11.44s to grab gold and record a new personal best time.
In other final results for the 23-member Guyanese team, Kaidon Persaud clocked 49.56s to finish 6th in the Boys’ U17 400M event. That race was won by Jamaica’s Nickecoy Bramwell in 47.27s, with him rewriting Usain Bolt’s 22-year-old championship record of 47.33s.
The female version of the U17 event saw Guyana’s Marissa Thomas clocking 58.51s for 7th place in the final. The U17 crown was won by Jamaica’s Anastasia Fletcher, who crossed the line in 54.32s for gold.
In the middle-distance events, Alkila Butcher clocked 5:16.37 in the Girls U17 1500M final for 8th place. Dallia Fairweather of Jamaica clinched the gold medal in 4:45.86.
The Guyanese contingent began their campaign on a positive note on Saturday morning, as the likes of Springer, Smith and McPherson punched tickets to their respective 400M finals following a string of scintillating performances in the Heats.
Persaud was the first to qualify for his final, clocking 49.5s in the Boys’ U17 Semifinal 2. McPherson then topped her U20 Girls Heat 1 in 54.03s to book her final spot. In Heat 2 of the same event, last year’s golden girl Tianna Springer crossed the line in 52.80s to qualify for the final.
In the male version of that event, Austin was a force to be reckoned with, clocking 46.80s to shave 2 seconds off his previous personal best time and win Heat 4.
However, Dh Neilson Gill, after clocking 48.89s in Heat 3 for fourth, did not have a good enough time to advance to the U20 400M final.