The victorious Jamaican contingent (Photos by Gordon French).

Jamaica amassed 562 points, winning eight of the 10 division titles, including 6 of the 10 individual titles in front of arguably the most vociferous supporters filling the bleachers during the two-day event that started with a grand parade and opening ceremony on Friday, July 18.

“A series of weekend camps leading up to the CUT games and we made a selection from our national primary/all age and junior track and field championships,” said Jamaica ’s national head coach, Arthur Edwards when he was asked about the secret behind his team’s continued good performance.

“I think that it was outstanding, most of the age groups performed up to expectations, and there were others who performed beyond expectations winning medals in almost every event. Our 38-athletes really performed well,” Edwards related.

Jamaica bagged a number of meet records, including Jazeal Murphy’s Under-15 boys sprint double record runs of 11.09 and 22.62 in the 100 and 200 meters respectively.

Jamaican High Jumper Chanice Porter, broke the All Comers Record of 1.65 meters which was established by Virgin Gorda’s Takola Creque in 1994 with a leap of 1.66 meters.  

“The future for Jamaican track and field is very bright because the athletes you saw during the CUT games are the nursery for Jamaican track and field…a product of the junior system that has produced the likes of Veronica Campbell, Jerome Simpson, Kerron Stewart,” Edwards said.

Four time champions Barbados followed in second with 452.5 points and Trinidad and Tobago , which is the only other team to win three consecutive titles, was third with 353.5 points.

This year has been highly competitive, I thing we did extremely well unfortunately we did not come out on top but we finished on a high note by breaking the record in the boys under-15 4x100 meter relay and I think it has some bragging rights with Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, said Barbados’ head coach, Rodney Forde.

“Hopefully at some point in time the powers to be will see it important to put things in place so that we can take our athletes to the next level. Forde noted.

Trinidad and Tobago head coach, Anslem Wright said the competition was great and regardless of the out come, the athletes performed with heart.

“I think that the performance by Trinidad and Tobago was good a performance, these children came out and performed with their hearts. It was a successful games,” Wright stated.

Bahamas with 292.5 points was fourth followed by St. Kitts on 166 points. The British Virgin Islands was sixth with 143.5 points.

“The children could see that if they had come out more and pushed in more work the BVI would have done better at home,” said BVI’s head coach, Ileta Potter.

“The under-9 children really pushed, but we really need to look on our attitude. We didn’t get any good disciple coming into the games and we needed more help from the parents, we cannot look for anything when we did not put in anything,” Potter stated.

Final results: Jamaica , 562. 2. Barbados 452.5. 3. Trinidad and Tobago , 353.5. 4. Bahamas , 292.5. 5. St. Kitts, 166. 6. British Virgin Islands , 143.5. 7. Cayman Islands , 131.5. 8. St. Lucia , 108.5. 9. Anguilla , 101.5. 10. Grenada , 100. 11. Bermuda , 65. 12. Nevis , 51.5. 13. Antigua , 30. 14. U.S. Virgin Islands , 20. 14. Montserrat , 4.

Division Champions:

Under-9: Girls, Shanique Walker from Jamaica (29 points); Boys, Mark Smith from Jamaica (19points).

Under-11: Girls, Junelle Bromfield from Jamaica (29 points); Boys, Onekie Wright from Jamaica (23 points).

Under-13: Girls, Shemaiah Clarke from Trinidad and Tobago and Talasiah Balgobin, from Trinidad and Tobago (each had 23 points); Boys, Santrand Joseph from St. Lucia (19 points).

Under 15: Girls Shevonne Husbands from Barbados (24 points); Boys, Lonzo Wilkinson from St. Kitts, Jazeal Murphy and Romaine Hedman from Jamaica (18 points).

Champion Female: Shanique Walker

Champion Male: Onekie Wright

Medal performances

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