BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) – Mona Campus made a strong start to their defence of the UWI Games on Friday, when they topped their rivals in the track & field competition. Mona accumulated 373 points to head off Cave Hill with 293.5 and St Augustine with 280.5 at the Barbados National Stadium.
Ann Marie Finegan was the most outstanding female athlete, tallying a meet-high 28 points, collecting the gold medal in the 400 metres (1 minute, 00.32 seconds) and the 3 000m (12 min, 45.12 secs).
She also copped a silver medal with a toss of 32.73m in the women’s discus, finishing behind teammate and Barbados-born former CARIFTA gold medallist Keisha Walkes (41.73).
Walkes accounted for one of the seven records that were broken at the meet, smashing the shot put record with a distance of 13.11m.
Shakera Selman, a Barbados women’s national team cricketer, also covered herself with glory, when she broke the women’s javelin record with a hurl of 39.31m.
She was one of four from Cave Hill that established new marks, including Robert Gooding’s 15.28m in the men’s triple jump, Benjamin Hood with a distance of 14.19m in the men’s shot put, and the women’s 800 sprint medley relay team, which clocked 1:49.81.
Misha Kay Dacosta of Mona cleared the high jump bar at 1.65 metres to equal the previous women’s record, which has stood for the last 22 years, and the Mona men’s mile relay team finished in 3:38.09 to also set a new mark.
Former CARIFTA high jump gold medallist Daniel Burke of Cave Hill was the most outstanding male athlete.