Good Shepherd draw first blood in NAPSAC 2020

THE Jordans Supermarket Good Shepherd Panthers will be going into the finals of the 2020 National Primary Schools’ Athletics Championships (NAPSAC) with a leg-up as they lead in both the boys and the girls after yesterday’s semi-finals. With several schools putting in their bids for spots ahead of next week’s finals, Good Shepherd have 12 points and 10 points respectively after winning the Boys’ and Girls’ High Jump events.

In the girls, Kiami-Rae Orford leapt 1.42 metres to take Gold while Cheyenne Soleyn of St. Giles (1.31) and West Terrace’s Chelsee Worrell-Carter (1.29) rounded out the podium spots. Jayden Cummins got Good Shepherd their first medal of the 2020 meet when he jumped 1.43 metres to lead home Kai White of West Terrace (1.40) and Shazario Seifert of Milton Lynch (1.37). Good Shepherd also had an athlete in seventh place to add two points to their present tally.

On the track, the day belonged to St. George Primary as they continued to knock down the records. Individually, Ethan Hart continues to impress as he broke his own record yet again after setting it last week and the week before that. After posting 25.10 seconds last week in the Under-13 Boys’ 200-metre, he dropped his time once more to clock 24.98 seconds yesterday.

He teamed up with the rest of his group in the Sprint Medley to drop their time from last week as well. After putting up a new time of 1:55.20 last time, the quartet comfortably brought it down to 1:53.90. There was a third new mark recorded on the day as Leanna Green of Wilkie Cumberbatch advanced to the final of the Under-11 300-metre with a time of 45.78 seconds. She knocked down 46.67 posted by Tania Applewhaite of St. Giles back in 2018.

Hart’s teammate, Zachary Wall, had a good day as he qualified for all of his events. In the 400-metre, he clocked 59.72 seconds in Heat 1 ahead of Hart, who ran 1:00.58 in Heat 2. The pair switched roles in the 100-metre, with Hart running 12:55 to win Heat 2 while Wall was good for 12:90 in Heat 1. With Hart breaking his record in Heat 2 of the 200-metre, Wall won Heat 1 in 25.86 seconds.

Kenya Hinds of West Terrace will be going forward as well in multiple events after finishing first in the Under-13 Girls’ 400 with a time of 1:05.68 minutes and winning her heat in the Open 600-metre in 1:52.41 minutes. In that event, the quickest time went to Destiny Howard of Reynold Weekes Primary (1:50.95). She also clocked the second-fastest time of 1:06.35 minutes behind Hinds in the 400-metre.