… Rawlins, Skeete turn in star performances

THE 58th National Schools Cycling, Swimming and Track and Field Championships ended in a cloud of controversy as District 5 (West Coast Berbice) athletes, led by their teachers, had three sit-down protests on the track against a disqualification of their 4×100 Males Open relay team.

However, District 10 made it three in a row and continued their historic run as the District that have now won the Championships 17 times, District 11 (North Georgetown) and 13 (South Georgetown) tied for second, while home team, District 3 (West Demerara) came in fourth.

However, despite the setbacks, the 2018 ‘Nationals’ concluded just as darkness fell. At the end of the six days, athletes including the likes of District 10’s (Upper Demerara/Kwakwani) Deshana Skeete, District 3’s (West Demerara) Tonya Rawlins and District 4’s Dejuan Grant emerged as Guyana’s stars.

Rawlins, a 19-year-old student of Leonora Technical Institute, capped a sprinter’s dream performance with her third gold medal of 2018 Nationals, albeit an all-round team effort in the Girls’ Open 4x100m Relay event just edging District 10’s team by .02 seconds.
Having already won the Girls’ U-20 100m and 200m events, Rawlins produced a lung-bursting sprint on the anchor leg of the race after teammates Binka Joseph, Keliza Smith and Keira Duncan put the District 3 team in a strong position.

What made Rawlins’ homestretch sprint even more admirable was the fact that on the third leg, District 10’s Skeete had handed her team a sizeable lead. However, Rawlins produced perhaps the finest 100m of her budding career so far, to loud cheers from the large crowd at the NTFC.

Meanwhile Skeete added the 400m Girls’ U-18 gold medal to her 100m and 200m in emphatic fashion, once again leaving her opposition trailing in her wake. She ran 57.73s way ahead of second-place Jasmine Assanah (District 12) and Eliza Evans (District 4) who had to settle for bronze.

Dejaun Grant, who set a ‘venue’ record in the Boys’ U-12 High Jump, produced a gold medal performance in the 400m event, clocking 1 minute 4.17 seconds to edge out Gary Nedd (District 12) while District 13’s John Harry settled for bronze.

In the Males U-16 400m, District 3’s Richard Blake clocked 53.94s en route to gold while Job Fraser (District 15) pipped Wesley Tyndall (District 11) to silver.

Keliza Smith (District 3) copped the gold in the Females U-16 event while Brianna Charles (District claimed silver and Shaquka Tyrell (District 10) had to settle for bronze.
The full details and results along with the points standings will be published in a subsequent report.