Darrell grabs Island?s only gold
Latroya Darrell claimed Bermuda?s only gold medal of the XXXV Carifta Games on Monday in Guadeloupe when she won the under-20 girls high jump with a leap ten centimetres short of her personal best.
Darrell?s gold was her second medal of the Games, having already secured the silver in the under-20 triple jump on Sunday, and Bermuda?s fourth overall.
Darrell was a double-silver medallist at last year?s Games in Tobago and her best effort in the high jump this time around of 1.76 metres was only two centimetres better than her silver-medal leap in 2005. It was sufficient, however, to eclipse the challenge of her nearest rival for gold at the Rene-Serge Nabajoth Stadium in Les Abymes, Shauntel Thompson from Jamaica, whose best effort was 1.74 metres.
Meanwhile, Bermuda?s star 800 metre runner Aaron Evans suffered a disastrous last-placed finish in the under-17 final after an unlucky stumble ? coming in almost seven seconds behind the second-to-last-placed finisher. Having been the fastest qualifier in the heats with a time of one minute 57.58 seconds, Evans went into the race as favourite for the gold ? but the fall put paid to any medal hopes as he finished in 2:07.21.
Elsewhere, Taijaun Talbot finished seventh in the under-20 800 metre final in a time of 2:03.88 while Kijaun Wilkinson placed eighth in the under-20 triple jump with a best effort of 13.68 metres ? almost two metres behind gold medallist Robert Peddler from Jamaica.
Bermuda?s 400 metre women?s relay team of Nandi Woods, Alixis Armstrong, Ashley Taylor-Bean and Jessica Richardson placed seventh in the final in a time of four minutes, 12.26 seconds.
As expected, Jamaica topped the medal tables for the 22nd year in a row with a total of 68 ? including 39 gold, 21 silver and eight bronze ? while Bermuda finished seventh with four medals, one gold, two silver and one bronze.
World youth long jump champion Arantxa King secured silver in the under-20 long jump while distance runner Matthew Spring claimed bronze in the under-17 3,000 metres to go with Darrell?s two medals.
