WHAT had promised to be an exciting opening day of Caribbean athletes matching their skills fizzled to a lukewarm event, as the opening day of the Boyce & Jefford Classic began and ended in damp conditions yesterday afternoon at the Mackenzie Sports Club ground, Linden.

Announcing a premature close was all that the organisers could have done as rain pelted down and left the Mackenzie Sports Club grass track inundated, after only the completion of a few field events and the preliminary heats of the 100m and 800metres.
However, starting off with the 100m heats as the first track event, the day was not completely devoid of thrills as Rupert Perry (Guyana Defence Force) and Winston George (Guyana Police Force) eased into today’s men’s 100m final.
George clocked 10.7 seconds, while Perry 10.9 seconds. The two will now go head-to-head for the first time since Perry returned to athletics following an injury that had him out for some years. In his absence George had capitalised on the opportunity to rise to the spot of being Guyana’s leading sprinter on home turf.
The fastest timing for the heats went to GDF’s Davin Fraser who touched the line in 10.6 seconds. George, Perry and Fraser were the other athletes to make it below the 11-second mark. Linden’s Compton Caesar made it to the line in 11 seconds flat, while teammate Winston Caesar got there in 11.4 seconds.
Others to make it into the final were Mercury Fast Laners Kevin Abbensetts (11.7s), Police Kelvin Garraway (11.3s) and Linden’s Bevon Noble (11.6s)
For the girls, Kezia Bess and Kenisha Prescott scored the fastest timing for the day, both clocking 13.1s. The athlete to watch for in this race was Jamaica’s Seidatha Palmer who made it into the final with a time of 13.4 seconds.
Other girls vying in today’s final are Ebony Nelson (13.4s), Deja Smart (12.4s), Letitia Myles (12.8s), Aniquah Powley (12.7s) and Euodia Forte (13.6s)
Out on the field Sophia Vanderstoop copped the women’s discus win throwing a distance of 31.11m, while in the women’s long jump Powley crossed 5.03m to take the win.
The event is expected to resume today at 11:00hrs to hopefully complete the events rolled over from yesterday. (Tamica Garnett)