EMANUEL Archibald and Jasmine Abrams powered to the 100m titles when the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG) Senior Championships got underway Friday at the National Track and Field Facility, Leonora.

Archibald clocked 10.18 seconds to erase his previous personal best of 10.22s, and easily win the marque race ahead of Akeem Stewart (10.46s) and Nolex Holder (10.47s), who had a tight battle for second.
However, he was still unable to meet the Olympic entry standard time of 10.05 seconds for next month’s Games in Tokyo.

On the distaff side, the overseas-based Abrams clocked 11:37s to comfortably take the female title but she too was off the qualification mark of 11.15 seconds; she ran 11.25s in the preliminaries.

Brianna Charles (11.85s) of Running Brave and Juvonaa Cornette (11.90s) of Tytan Athletics rounded off the top-three.

A scintillating performance of the night was produced by 20-year-old Sir Kennard Hartog who stunned seasoned campaigner Cleveland Thomas to win the 10 000m.

The duo had an exciting battle throughout the race. Heading into the last 150m, Hartog distanced himself from the ageing legs of Thomas in a classic sprint to the final to clock 34 minutes 41.89 seconds for the victory.

He received thunderous cheers from his fellow athletes in the stands. Thomas clocked 34:46.36s followed by Mauro-Rolando Cucui (35:29.30s).

The men’s Discus saw GDF’s Jermain Samuels (40.58s) and Joshua Jones (38.16m) take the top two positions and Gabriel Lim (37.35m) in third.

Today’s final day action will commence at 13:00hrs to accommodate AAG’s Annual General Meeting and Election of Office-bearers at 10:00hrs at the National Racquet Centre.

The highlights should be the scheduled two 200m finals and the men’s long jump in which Archibald will seek to qualify for the Olympics.
The event is not open to members of the public due to COVID-19 protocols.