Historic run for Guyana!

South American Under-20 Championship…

‒ secure 25 medals; finish 2nd overall

By Michelangelo Jacobus

With their athletes performing admirably at the South American U-20 Championships to claim 3 Gold medals, 10 Silver and 12 Bronze, Guyana can now boast of having garnered their largest ever medal haul at any international meet.
Prior to the 2017 staging of these championships, Guyana’s accumulation of medals at these games since commencement of the event in 1959 stood at eight.
When the Championships had come to an end on Sunday at the National Track and Field Facility at Leonora, WCD, the Brazilian contingent had successfully defended their title with 32 medals, 18 of which are Gold. Host nation Guyana had come second overall on points, as their athletes had scored 198 points compared to Brazil’s 287. Colombia claimed the third spot with 165 points; Peru were fourth with 118 points; Argentina were fifth with 104 points; Ecuador were sixth with 91 points; Suriname seventh with 47 points, Chile eighth with 42, Uruguay 9th with 15, Paraguay 10th with 11, and Bolivia at the bottom with 4 points.
Highlight of the day was ace sprinter Compton Caesar overcoming a mid-morning tumble in his Men’s 200 Metres Heat to claim Silver in the finals. Cruising in the heats, Caesar pulled up after the finish line to leave Guyanese fans worried. In the finals, his powerful run of 21.45s was not enough to beat his Brazilian rival Derick De Souza, who dashed his Sprint-double dream with a time of 20.92s to take Gold, while Chilean Enzo Faulbam snared Bronze in 21.55s.
The second and final day of the South American Youth Championships began with Jonathan Amores Carua taking Gold in the 10,000 Metres Males walk-race ahead of Colombian Cesar Al Herera Cortes and Mattheus Correia of Brazil, to get the ball rolling.
Guyana began the day by garnering a Silver and a Bronze medal, compliments of Tramaine Beckles and Timothy Sealey respectively in the Boys Javelin contest, while Gold went to Pedro Rodrigues of Brazil.
Nigel Gonsalves and Ronaldo Wishart, Guyana’s hopes of medalling in the 3000 Metres Steeplechase, fell short as Walace Caldas of Brazil and Edwar Condori and Alexander Huanca of Peru took Gold, Silver and Bronze in that order.
Terrence Fraser copped Bronze as he came in at 58.07s, behind Colombia’s Eher Al Romana (55.65s) and Brazil’s Caio Martins (54.78s) in the 400 Metres Hurdle.
Chantoba Bright, who won Guyana’s first Gold on Saturday, had to settle for Bronze in the Triple-Jump. She jumped a distance of 12.19 metres, behind Monifa Djoe of Suriname (12.33 metres) and Brazil’s Mierili Santos (12.71 metres).
Joanna Archer produced a lung-bursting run in the 800 metres, but her effort was not enough to overcome Colombian Johana Arrieta (2:10.41s). She took Silver with a time of 2:19.43s while Davinia Asantiba (2:50.68s) of Suriname settled for Bronze.
As the morning session ended, Kenisha Phillips ran 24.47s in her Women’s 200 Metres Final to cop Bronze behind Romi Cifuentes (24.20s) of Ecuador and Brazilian ace sprinter Lorraine Martins (23.65s), who took gold.

In the afternoon session, there was an upset in the Girls 4×100 relays as the Ecuadorian quartet clocked a combined time of 46.47s to take gold, while Colombia (47.33s) came second and Guyanese girls Kenisha Phillips, Cassie Small, Avon Samuels and Onasha Rogers took bronze in 47.43s to leave the favourites, Brazil, in the cold.
The Guyanese males had a near perfect start in their 4×100 Relay, as Daniel Williams who is adept at making fast turns outran his counterparts to pass the baton to Tyrell Peters, who kept Guyana ahead when he handed the baton over to Ryan Bramble. However, Brazilian Derick De Souza ran a beastly third leg at this stage to give his team an edge in the final 100 metres. Compton Caesar, anchoring for the Guyana males, put everything into the final stretch, but Vittor Souza pipped him by 1/10th of a second to take the Gold. The Brazilians had a combined time of 41.29s, while Guyana claimed Silver in 41.30s and Colombia Bronze in 42.38s.
The next Guyanese to get in on the medal sheet was Kimbily Hilliman in the Javelin event. She throw the javelin a distance of 19.82 metres to claim Bronze, behind Fabielle Ferreira of Brazil (51.74 metres for Silver) and Ecuador’s Yuleixi Angulo (54 metres for Gold).
As the relays continued, Guyana’s female 4×400-Metres team brushed aside the competition to take the host nation’s third Gold medal. Anchor Avon Samuels quickly established a narrow lead that Tandika Haynes maintained. In the third leg, Joanna Archer carefully calculated her run, as Colombian Angelica Gamboa took a brief lead, only for Archer to power her way through to Kenisha Phillips, who took off like a bullet to bring the Gold home in a combined time of 3:51.40s, while Colombia came second in 3:52.14s and Argentina third in 4:13.57s.
A breach by Daniel Williams in the Boys 4×400 Metres denied the Guyanese a Relay double, as the team was disqualified despite a dominant performance. Colombia took Gold in that event, Suriname Silver and Argentina Bronze.
Williams redeemed himself in the High Jump event, along with countryman Tortque Boyce, who respectively garnered Bronze and Silver. Williams had a jump of 1.90m; Boyce, with less tries, had the same 1.90m; and Brazilian Luan Barbosa took the Gold with 1.95m.
The resilient Dennies Roberts added his Silver to Guyana’s medal tally in the Decathlon, amassing 4,936 points to come in behind Peruvian Ignacio Sanchez (5,271 points). Brazil’s Jordan De Souza took the Bronze with 3,361 points.