Semple lifts champion Boy title, Jonas for the Girls

‘A’ Division’s Shawn Semple’s triple take in the men’s ‘A’ Class 100m, 200m and 400m races was not enough to help his team overcome the Headquarters (HQ) division which amassed a 99 points lead to walk away with the ultimate champions title for a second consecutive year, when the Guyana Police Force Inter-Division Track and Field Championships concluded last Friday night at the Eve Leary ground.

Headquarters ended with 501 points while ‘A’ Division finished with 402 points, Country Division was third with 206 points and ‘B’ Division was fourth with 191 points.

Semple took the champion boy title ahead of HQ’s Kevin Bayley. ‘A’ Division’s Marvin Tinnis, who won the men’s ‘B’ Class 100m and 200m, shared the B class champion boy title with HQ’s Grivon Grant.

Champion girl went to Country division’s distance runner Jonella Jonas, who accumulated 30 points to win the title ahead of HQ’s Leota Bobb who fell short by four points when she finished with 26.

In the men’s 100m Semple and Keith Roberts faced off again this year with Semple once again triumphing over Roberts. Semple finished in 11 seconds flat just ahead of the 11.2 seconds clocked by Keith Roberts.
The two were at it again in the 200m , with Semple’s 21.9 seconds being just enough to overcome Roberts 22.8 seconds, third place for the international event went to St Vincent’s Shadell Bollentine..

Down in the ‘B’ Class men’s races ‘A’ Division took massive wins again with team mates Tinnis and Keifer Henry battling it out. Tinnis bested Henry in both the 100m and 200m, clocking 11.1 seconds and 23.5 seconds, respectively.

While ‘A’ Division picked up most of the points on the men’s side, HQ was strong on the women’s side as Bobb, Tiffany Carto and Onika Eastman, all from HQ, went head to head in the sprints.

Bobb took the 100m in a time of 12.2 seconds to settle Carto’s 12.4 seconds finish to second place, ‘A’ Division’s Cindy Fraser sneaked in at third place with a time of 12.8 seconds.

It was another win for Bobb in the 200m where she covered the distance in 25.4 seconds, this time coming in ahead of Eastman who clocked 25.9 seconds. With a 26.3 seconds finish, Carto took third.
It was Eastman’s turn to shine when it came around to the 400m race, as she settled Carto and Bobb to second and third, respectively

On the male side, Bayley was a master in the 1500m where he finished in 4:17.80s, not done yet HQ collected second place in the race thanks to Grivon Grant who clocked 4:20.0, ‘A’ Division still managed to pick up some points in the race with Nathaniel Giddings 4:20.2s third place finish.

HQ also finished big in the relays collecting wins in the male and female 4x100m relays, ‘A’ Division managed to come second in the male event while Country was second in the female.

In the day’s field events ‘A’ Division scored big as Tracy Moses and Thandica Burgess won the women’s high jump, while coming second in the men’s shot put which was won by HQ’s Warren Duncan, who threw a maximum distance of 10.32m to overcome Albert Mendonca’s 10.08m throw.

Prizes to the winners were presented at the closing ceremony by Commissioner of Police (ag), Seelall Persaud, who announced that the winning team would receive a $150, 000 cash prize.

(By Tamica Garnett)