Suriname on course for IGG title repeat

Déjà vu …
SURINAME accumulated 295 points after dominating the disciplines of track and field, swimming and football when the first leg of the 43rd Inter-Guiana Games (IGG) came to a close last Sunday at the Stade de Baduel in Cayenne French Guiana.
Guyana finished in second position with 241 points; only a point ahead of the French. But the shock of the competition came in the track and field event which was basically owned by the Guyanese for close to two decades and now that holy grail belongs to the Surinamese.
It was evident that the athletes from the once Dutch colony were clearly underestimated by the Guyanese who were rattled by the exclusion of several notable athletes that opted to participate at other more recognised championships such as the Junior CARIFTA games which begins later this week in the Cayman Islands.
On the opening day the Surinamese won almost all of the track events but it was the excellent showing of the Guyanese in the field events that saved them from being blown out from day one.
However, day two saw Kevin Bayley and Tyshon Bentinck turning in some excellent times to win the 800, 5 000 metres respectively.
Bentinck who won the 1500m on day clocked 16 minutes 40.1 seconds in the 5 000m but behind him was Suriname’s Regillio Touwslager (16:40.1S) and his Guyanese teammate Jemoul Chisholm was third with a time of 17 minutes 7.1 seconds.
Bayley won the 800m running one minute 59.3 seconds with Carlos Felixdal second with an even two minutes and Guyana’s Malcolm Walcott third in two minutes 1.5 seconds.
Unfortunately apart from winning the 400m men’s relay, Guyana did not have another top podium on the track on the final and had to endure hearing the Surinamese anthem at almost all of the medal presentation ceremony.
Deniel Clark of Suriname added the games’ 200m title to her 100m triumph on day one when she blazed to win the race in a time of 24.4 seconds and her country woman Ramona van der Loot second (24.5 secs) and French Guiana’s Aurelie Quemon third (25.1 secs).

Ianna Graham who came third in the 100m finished fourth (25.6 secs) and Tiffany Carto who was expelled from the 100m due to a false start was sixth (26.0seconds).
In the field, Lisa Bowman won the day’s only gold medal for Guyana when she threw the shot-put a distance of 9.38 metres in front of French Guiana’s Riphna Champingy (9.21 metres) and Suriname’s Charaisa Jubithana (8.59m) while Onescia Byass of Guyana had to settle for fifth with a distance of 8.46 metres.
Ryan Crandon, who also competed for Guyana in football, could have only thrown the shot put 11.91m for fourth and javelin winner Michael Bowman was fifth (11.44m) was fifth in the event that was won by French Guiana’s Dean-nick Allen with a distance of 14.45 metres.
Crandon would later go on to place second in the Discus (43.76m) behind Allen (49.72m) and Suriname’s Miguel Laing third with a throw of 39.6m.
The second leg of the games will be held in October here in Guyana where the three countries – French Guiana and Suriname being the others – will do battle in the disciplines of basketball, cycling and volleyball.

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