Guyanese athletes at CARIFTA Games: One gold, 2 silver for Harvey, McPherson, Roberts on first CARIFTA outing 

One gold and two silver. That was Guyana’s medal count at the end of the first day of the 2022 CARIFTA Games, signalling a successful day on the track for the Land of Many Waters.

Competing alongside the region’s best youth athletes, Saturday proved to be a great day for Guyana’s first-timers, as Attoya Harvey, Narissa McPherson and Javon Roberts copped a gold and 2 silver respectively at their very CARIFTA Games.
Meanwhile, Keliza Smith came close to the podium, but missed it by a feather.
After two years of qualifying for the CARIFTA Games and not being able to compete due to COVID-19 cancellation, Attoya Harvey, on Saturday evening, finally realized her dream of being a CARIFTA medalist when she stormed to a gold medal finish in the Girls’ Under-17 1500m race.
With no preliminary race, Harvey’s first outing on the track in Kingston was the final of the event, which she won in 4:45.75 minutes, miles in front of her competition.
Coming in at 4:52.14 was Trinidad and Tobago’s Kayleigh Forde for second, and Jamaica’s Kededra Coombs came in third in a time of 4:52.19.
And that was only the first of Guyana’s medals on Saturday.
In what was her very first race at the CARIFTA Games, Narissa McPherson held her nerve in the Under-17 400m event to qualify for Saturday night’s final.
Competing in

Heat 2, McPherson clocked 56.83s for second place in the heat, just behind Jamaica’s Abigail Campbell’s 56.15s first-place run. McPherson also registered the 3rd-best qualification time overall, with Campbell placing first and her fellow Jamaican Quana Walker (57.43s) placing second, leading the Guyanese.
Jamaica’s Campbell proved to be the obstacle in McPherson’s way once again in the final, as she raced to a gold medal finish in a time of 53.83s. However, the Guyanese McPherson stopped the clock at 55.39 for second place and the silver medal.
The podium was completed be Jamaica’s Quana Walker I’m 55.65s.
As for Javon Roberts, the youngster complimented Harvey’s gold in the Under-17 1500m with a silver medal in the male version of the race. Roberts, in his first race at the premier regional event, clocked 4:12.54 for second, behind Trinidad and Tobago’s Keeran Sriskandarajah (4:10.58), but finished ahead of Jamaica’s Yoshane Bowen, who clocked 4:13.15 for the bronze medal.
Competing in Heat 3 of the Girls Under-20 100m sprint, Keliza Smith outran her opponents to finish first in the heat with a time of 11.55. Notably, Smith finished ahead of Tina Clayton, one half of the Jamaican twin-sprint sensation, who settled for second in 11.65s.
In Heat 1, Karese Lloyd registered a time of 12.16s to finish third, behind Trinidad and Tobago’s Shaniqua Bascombe and Barbados’s Kishawna Niles, who clocked 11.50s and 11.57s respectively. However, Lloyd’s time was not good enough to earn her a spot in the final.
In the final, Guyana’s Keliza Smith stopped the clock at 11.58s, a time that was only good enough for fourth place.
Jamaican twins Tina and Tia Clayton took gold and silver by clocking 11.22s and 11.30s respectively. The third position was occupied by Trinidad’s Bascombe, who narrowly edged out Smith with a time of 11.57s.
Guyana’s Hannah Reid, after cruising for the first 200M, took the lead on the back stretch and held on long enough to cross the line first in Heat 4 of the Girls Under-20 400M event.
Reid, finished in 55.02s, to register the second-best qualification time for the event on Saturday morning. Reid’s preliminary time was bested only by Bermuda’s Caitlyn Bobb, who stopped the clock at 53.95s, in Heat 1.
However, in the final, Reid had a less-than-impressive run, finishing 8th with a time of 55.38s. The race was won by Jamaica’s Kaylia Kelly, who clocked 52.32s.
Meanwhile, also hitting the track for Guyana on Saturday morning were Shamar Horatio and Ezekiel Newton in the Boys Under-20 100m preliminaries.
In Heat 2, Newton clocked 11.16s, while in Heat 4, Horatio crossed the line in 10.99s. While Horatio came the closest to qualification, he missed a semifinal spot by two-hundredths of a second.
In the javelin arena, Gabriel Lim competed for Guyana in the Under-20 throws and registered distances of 49.47m, 50.04m, 49.51m, two fouls, and a best throw of 53.27m. However, this throw was only good enough for seventh place in an event wherein the CARIFTA record was broken by Keyshawn Strachan of the Bahamas with a throw of 79.89m.
The CARIFTA Games in Jamaica will continue until April 18. (Jemima Holmes)