… Skeete, Jordan go down in the record books

PERFORMANCES like Deshanna Skeete’s record-breaking and the take-down of Kenisha Phillips helped orchestrate Upper Demerara/Kwakwani’s win of the athletics competition, and ultimately put together a successful defence of their title, as the overall champions of the National Schools Cycling, Swimming and Track & Field Championships concluded last evening at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence.

After triumphing over Phillips in the 200m on Thursday, Skeete continued to prove to be more than 15-year-old Phillips could handle this year. Skeete finished the Girls’ Under-16 quarter mile in 57.7 seconds, leaving an astonished Phillips to come in with a time of 57.9 seconds. Kissana Glen was third in 1:03.7s.
In another surprising upset of the day, District 11’s Samuel Lynch beat Boys’ Under-18 sprint double champion Daniel Williams in the 400m. Just outside of the standing 49.9 seconds record, Lynch ran 50.7 seconds for the win over Williams, who clocked 51.5 seconds.

Meanwhile, Skeete was not the only one to etch his name in the record books yesterday, Corentyne (District 6) Boys’ Under-18 high-jumper Samuel Jordan set the new high jump record at 191cm, obliterating the 184cm record that Parish Cadogan set in 2010.
Jordan was not the only one making it over the 184-mark. Williams who finished in second place also cleared 191cm while Tortque Boyce cleared 188cm.
The District 10 camp broke out in screams of celebrations last evening and many participated in a victory lap around the track after it was officially announced that, as expected, the team had retained their title, once against ousting arch rival, North Georgetown (District 11). In the process they became the first District to attain 15 titles at the esteemed event.

Things started out looking good for the yellow-and-black team when they finished second behind North Georgetown in the swimming competition on Monday.
As the five-day competition continued they put on a good showing in the cycling competition, also positioning second.
It was only in the teachers’ competition that the Lindeners really took blows, ending all the way down in seventh position. It was the 20 points from their athletics win that truly buoyed them. In the athletics competition District 10 finished with 666.75 points for the win, almost 200 points away from second-place finishers Corentyne (District 6), who ended with 483 points.

Despite finishing fifth in the athletics competition, after taking just 440.5 points, North Georgetown were only six points behind District 10, thanks to their third-place in the teachers’ competition and the top spot in the swimming.
In the cycling North also finished fifth, after gaining only 93 points in that competition.
Taking third place overall were South Georgetown (District 13) with 55 points. The team may have stood a chance of coming in second if they had done better in athletics, where they finished in 8th place.

West Demerara (District 3) dominated the teachers’ competition, and finished third in the athletics, enabling the team to finish fourth overall. In the cycling the team placed eight and in swimming they were 10th among the districts.

The full results for the districts are as follows
1st – Upper Demerara/Kwankwani (District 10) 65 points
2nd – North Georgetown (District 11) 59 points
3rd – South Georgetown (District 13) 55 points
4th – West Demerara (District 3) 53 points
5th – Corentyne (District 6) 50 points
6th – East Georgetown (District 12) 44.5 points)
7th – Bartica (District 7) (41 points)
8th – East Coast Demerara (District 4) (40.5 points)
9th – North West (District 1) 40 points
10th – Essequibo Coast/Pomeroon (District 2) 32.5 points
10th – New Amsterdam (District 15) 32.5 points
12th – East Bank Demerara (District 14) 31 points
13th – West Coast Berbice (District 5) 30 points
14th – Rupununi (District 9) 18 points
15th – Potaro/Siparuni (District 8) 15 points.