By Faizool Deo

SEVERAL records were broken when the field events commenced yesterday, on Day Three, at the 59th National Schools’ Cycling, Swimming and Track & Field Championships at the National Track and Field Centre in Leonora.

Up to the end of the afternoon session, three teachers and five athletes had broken the marks of their predecessors. Included in the mix was nine-year-old Delmar Benjamin, who handed the Rupununi their first record in high jump, according to officials from that district.

The Grade five student of Aishalton Primary School was elated to have claimed a victory and new record in the High Jump Boys 10-and-under event.  His 1.27m jump was better that the previous record of New Amsterdam’s athlete Samuel Welcome (1.22m) in 2017.

Rupununi District team manager Ariel James said that the young athletes are very driven and that they practise with a high jump makeshift apparatus on sand (no mattress/cushion).

Along with Benjamin, Zeryssa McRae (District 10) etched her name in the record books with a solid performance in the U-14 High Jump division.  McRae jumped 1.48m to erase the previous mark of 1.38m, which was jointly held by Makayla Hilliman (South Georgetown) and Alice Fraser (Corentyne).

Meanwhile Annastacia Clarke from District Two, Essequibo Coast/Pomeroon was able to break the Discus – record en route to victory in the event. Her throw yesterday of 18.58m was slightly better than Tiona Lewis’s 2018 mark of 18.30m.

Two teachers broke their own Shot Put records.  Chenille Bowen (District 11) was able to break her 2017 record of 8.60m with a new mark of 9.15m, while Osofa Dos Santos bettered his 2018 mark of 13.05m with a throw of 13.93m. The other teacher’s record broken was in the Javelin Over-40 division.

Curt Richard (District 1) was able to win that competition with a 38.m throw which better the 2017 record (36.94m) of Nikolai Newland (Corentyne)

Okenoko Pascall (District 5) also broke a record in the throws, when he was able to push the shot put 14.25m to eclipse the 2017 record of Sean Lam (13.43m).

The other record broken was in the javelin Boys U-20 division. Joshua Tappin hurled the javelin to a distance of 57.31m, which was better than his District 10 teammate Jermaine Simmons’s 2018 mark of 55.88m.

Outside of the records, there were several finals, including a victory for national athlete Deshana Skeete in the Long Jump Girls U-18 category. Skeete broke her PB in the event en route to a gold medal. Her top jump of 5.30m, was however off the mark of Chantoba Bright’s 5.82m mark, which was made in 2017.

The 2019 meet, which is scheduled to conclude on Friday, is set to continue today at the same venue with more track and field action.