...retains CAC Junior title with monster throw

Trinidad and Tobago's Keshorn Walcott continued his superb run of form this season with a huge throw at the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Junior Track and Field Championships, in San Salvador, El Salvador, late on Sunday.

Walcott hurled the spear 82.83 metres to retain his boys' under-20 javelin title, enjoying a huge cushion on silver medallist Alexander Pascal (68.84m), of the Cayman Islands. Barbadian Nicolai Bovelle (68.20m) claimed bronze.

Walcott's monster throw is a new CAC Junior Championship record. The 19-year-old Toco thrower also reset his national open, Pan American junior, NACAC (North America, Central America and Caribbean) junior, CAC junior and national junior records, and extended his lead at the top of the 2012 world junior list.

The 82.83m effort earned Walcott a ten-place jump on the all-time world junior list, from 15th to fifth. He is also 23rd on the 2012 men's list.

A big favourite for gold in El Salvador, Walcott ended the event as a contest in the very first round, landing the javelin 72.56m. In the second round, the four-time Carifta Games champion produced his huge 82.83m effort, improving on the 80.11m personal best he had established in Cuba five weeks ago and beating the 82.00m Olympic "A" standard.

Walcott is the favourite for gold at the July 10-15 World Junior Championships, in Barcelona, Spain.

T&T finished third on the medal table at the CAC Junior Championships, earning eight gold medals, six silver and nine bronze. Jamaica topped the table with 20 gold medals, 15 silver and nine bronze, while second spot went to Mexico (11 gold, 6 silver, 2 bronze).

There were five gold medal performances from Team T&T on Sunday, the third and final day of the Championships--Walcott, Machel Cedenio (boys' under-18 400m), Reubin Walters (boys' under-18 110m hurdles), Kevin Roberts (boys' under-18 octathlon) and the boys' under-18 4x400m team.

Cedenio was dominant in the boys' under-18 one-lap final, grabbing gold in 47.36 seconds. T&T also earned silver in the event, Theon Lewis getting home in 48.11 to force Mexico's Ricardo Jimenez (48.21) to settle for bronze.

Walters captured the boys' under-18 sprint hurdles title with a 13.49 seconds run--a new national youth record. Jamaicans Tyler Mason (13.50) and Michael O'Hara (13.65) picked up the minor medals.

Roberts accumulated 5,192 points over two days of competition to lead a one-two T&T finish in the boys' under-18 octathlon. Victor Isaac claimed silver with 5,000 points in the eight-discipline event. Costa Rica's Andres Acosta (4,983) finished third.

Asa Guevara, Cedenio, Walters and Lewis combined for gold in the boys' under-20 mile relay, the T&T quartet clocking three minutes, 11.66 seconds, for a huge cushion on second-placed Barbados (3:14.31). Puerto Rico (3:14.78) bagged bronze.

Kernesha Spann added girls' under-20 400m bronze to the one-lap hurdles gold she had earned on Friday. The T&T athlete clocked 54.52 seconds to finish behind Jamaican Olivia James (53.89) and Cuba's Sahily Diago (54.20).

Steve Waithe secured bronze in the boys' under-20 triple jump with a 15.89m effort.

And in the girls' under-18 shot put, Chelsea James threw the iron ball 13.93m to capture bronze. Her T&T teammate, Portious Warren, finished fourth with a 13.63m throw.

Jeminise Parris was fourth in the girls' under-18 100m hurdles final in 14.10 seconds. In the boys' under-18 3,000m, Jevon Joseph was sixth in 9:26.24, while Nicholas Landeau did not finish. And Shaquille Waithe threw 56.99m for seventh spot in the boys' under-18 javelin.

2012 CAC Junior Championship final medal table

Gold Silver Bronze Total

1 Jamaica 20 15 9 44

2 Mexico 11 6 2 19

3 Trinidad & Tobago 8 6 9 23

4 Puerto Rico 7 10 7 24

5 Cuba 7 4 1 12

6 Barbados 6 6 6 18

7 Bahamas 5 10 13 28

8 Dominican Republic 5 2 4 11

9 Bermuda 2 1 2 5

10 El Salvador 1 3 7 11

11 Anguilla 1 3 0 4

12 Guatemala 1 2 7 10

13 St Lucia 1 2 0 3

14 St Kitts & Nevis 1 0 2 3

15 Grenada 1 0 1 2

16 Costa Rica 0 2 1 3

17 British Virgin Islands 0 2 0 2

18 Cayman Islands 0 1 2 3

19 Honduras 0 1 0 1

19 Turks & Caicos 0 1 0 1

19 Dominica 0 1 0 1

22 Antigua & Barbuda 0 0 2 2

23 Belize 0 0 1 1

-Kwame Laurence

Source: www.trinidadexpress.com