Keo Davis sets National Record at Carifta Trials
The 2024 Carifta Trials on March 9th and 10th, gave patrons at the Sir Vincent Beache National Stadium much to talk about. After the 2-day competition wrapped up, 10 athletes came away with qualifications in their events, but the talk of the weekend was the performance of U20 Boys sprinter, Keo Davis.
in a possible preview of the upcoming ISSAC Senior Boys 100m final, Davis, J’mar Saunders and Ajay Delpeche stormed away from the pack. Davis crossed the line in a personal best 10.57 seconds, ahead of Delpesche in 10.70 and Saunders in 10.71. All 3 went under the required A standard of 10.80 seconds.
The run in the 100mhowever, turned out to be the proverbial calm before the storm, as on Sunday, Davis won the 200m race in a National U20 Record 20.87, the fastest time recorded at the Sir Vincent Beache National Stadium. It also qualifies Davis for the World Athletics U20 Championships in Peru in August.
After the weekend’s races, Ajay Delpeche qualified for all the sprint events, when he ran 48.48 in the U20 Boys 400m prelims, to add to his 100m time on Saturday. He had previously qualified in the 200m.
Shykeina Francis made the U17 Girls 200m standard, after running 24.56 to finish second in the final, behind Aniya Nurse of Barbados. Nurse was one of 30 athletes from Barbados who participated in the trials over the weekend.
Timothy Williams finished 5th in the U20 Boys 200m final in 21.74, which gave him an A standard qualification.
B standards were met by Kessian John in the U17 Girls 1500m, and Zichri Hepburn in the U20 Boys 1500m. John ran 5:10.38, just missing the 5:10.00 A Standard. Hepburn was even closer to his requirement of 4:10.00, when he ran 4:10.24. He had previously qualified in the U20 Boys 5000m at the Pamenos Ballantyne Distance/Jumps Classic on February 20th.
The last 2 races on Sunday produced the final 3 qualifiers. Both participants in the Octathlon succeeded in compiling more than 4241 points, to qualify for the multi event discipline. Matthew Robinson and Jaheim Williams needed to run faster than 6 minutes in the 1500m run, in order to add their names to the list. Williams finished ahead of Robinson in 5:06.91, to finish with 4564 points, and Robinson came in, in 5:36.35, to end their competition with 4558.
Henree-K Francois then had all eyes on him as he ran the 12 and a half lap 5000m in 16:39.91, getting in under the 16:50.40 A Standard.
They have all now joined Tyhra Charles, in the U20 Girls 100, 200m & 400m, and Devonric Mack in the U20 Boys 200m and 400m as the qualifiers to date, for the 2024 Carifta Games, to be held at the Kirani James National Stadium from March 30th to April 1st.
