Sport enthusiasts and supporters were treated to an exhibition of talent and skill on Saturday evening as the third annual Aliann Pompey Invitational (API) was hosted at the Leonora Track and Field facility on the West Coast of Demerara.
Kyle Greaux of Trinidad & Tobago (centre) exhales after winning the Men’s A Class 200m ahead of Dominican Republic’s Yancarlos Martinez (second left) and Guyana’s Winston George (second right) respectively
Both local and foreign athletes converged at the synthetic track facility to compete for a number of prizes and the bragging rights of being the best in the Caribbean.
In a thrilling men’s 100 metres, local boy Emanuel Archibald clocked an impressive 10.29s to cop the top spot ahead of his Guyanese and Caribbean counterparts.
On the other hand, it was the foreign-based athletes who dominated the female 100m event. As expected, Jamaica’s Jonielle Smith clocked a swift 11.32s to cross the line in first place. She was closely followed by Tawanna Meadow in 11.41s; the final podium spot was taken by Trinidad and Tobago’s Reyare Thomas with 11.48s.
In what was his first outing in Guyana, Commonwealth Games 2018 gold medallist Troy Doris missed out on the top three of his triple jump event. Admitting that he was hindered by his injury, Doris leaped to 16.09m, just one metre short of Donald Scott’s 17.22m which copped first place.
Another thriller for the evening’s activities came in the 800m men’s event. Although the crowd was sure that a Guyanese would take the race, it was Quamel Prince who outran the bunch to clock a time of 1:48.70s. Guyana’s Devaun Barrington was just a few seconds short with 1:51.87s and had to settle for second place while Anfernee Headecker came in third with 1:52.98s.
The headline event for the Invitational was the men’s 400m race, which attracted participation from London 2012 Olympic gold winner Kirani James. In what looked to be Guyanese Winston George’s race within the first 250m, the tide quickly turned when James went into overdrive. James, who was coming back into competition after suffering from Grave’s disease throughout 2017, eventually cruised to first place with a time of 44.99s, which is surely not his best but it was the track’s fastest 400m ever. Second place went to Nigeria’s Chidi Okezie with 45.97s. George made sure the Golden Arrowhead would be featured on the podium with his third-place run of 46.13s. The up and coming Arinze Chance finished in fourth place, which meant that Daniel Williams would miss out on the top spots despite his urge to challenge the Olympian.
