Quow brings crowd to its feet

Before the crowd at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Mucurapo, Sutherland outclassed her rivals in a dominating performance to win the 400 metres, adding the CAC title to her CARIFTA crown which she captured in March by clocking an astonishing 51.30 seconds.

She led home her teammate Bobby Gaye Wilkins (53.19) and Trinidad and Tobago’s Janeil Bellille (56.15) for the lesser medals.

Sutherland copped one of the three 400 metres titles for the Jamaicans on the night as Latoya McDermott in the Under-17 girls and Romone McKenzie in the junior boys, also logged one-lap titles.

McDermott stopped the clock at 54.10 seconds ahead of St Lucia’s Monica Moncherry (55.15), for that island’s first medal of the meet. Trinidad and Tobago’s Jessica James (56.60) was third.

McKenzie continued the trend in the Under-17 boy’s race clocking a brisk 47.59 seconds, beating St Kitts’ Kadeem Smith (48.70) and Akino Ming (48.76), also of Jamaica.

The senior boys’ 400 metres race brought the partisan Hasely Crawford Stadium crowd to its feet when local star Renny Quow narrowly held off the strong finishing Jamaican Allodin Fothergill in the final 10 metres to win the event.

Running out of lane five, Quow led comfortably coming into the final straightaway but faded badly in the closing 50 metres as second placed Fothergill in lane six, and his teammate Edino Steele in lane four, made late surges.

But it was the diminutive Quow who emerged winner in 46.14 seconds to Fothergill’s 46.17 and Steele’s 46.29. Earlier, Barbadian Kierre Beckles captured the Under-17 girls sprint hurdles crown in 13.72 seconds, outpacing the Jamaican pair of Shemaine Williams and Rosemarie Carty who clocked 13.79 and 13.86 respectively.

In the senior girls event, Jamaican Kittanny Clarke led from early and won in 13.60 seconds over Barbadian Kimberly Stanford (13.60). The Mexicans dominated the boy’s junior and senior steeplechase races on the night.

In the Under-17 race over 2,000 metres with only two competitors Fer Hernandez clocked 6:19.62 minutes while Puerto Rico’s Luis Bernardi (7:02.43) claimed the silver. In the senior boy’s event over 3,000 metres, Aroon Her Arias clocked 9:05.99 minutes ahead of countryman Omar Alej Chavez (9:23.43).

The exciting sprint relays brought the day’s action to a climax.

(CMC)