(Photo courtesy Anthony Foster/TrackAlerts)
The 2016 CARIFTA Games in Grenada have been kind to several Florida athletes competing for their native countries. On Monday, Northeast High School (Oakland Park) Damion Thomas claimed gold for Jamaica in the U18 110m hurdles. Thomas, who was born in Ft. Lauderdale, but whose mom and dad were born on the island, ran a world leading time of 13.32s over the 36" hurdles. Thomas' father (Damion as well), says that converts to 13.62s over the high school height of 39" and was impressed with the youngsters race.
"I think Damion had one of his better starts. He looked very quick between the hurdles and very clean over most of the hurdles. He will now get ready for the district, region, and state meet."
In three meets this season, Thomas is undefeated in the 110m hurdles and comes into the state series as the two-time defending state champion in that event.
Also medaling in the final session of the CARIFTA Games was 100m gold medalist Khalifa St. Fort's Born 2 Do It Club and Trinidad & Tobago teammate Sarah Wollaston (Somerset Academy). St. Fort, who was making her professional debut, had to withdraw from the competition after winning the 100 in 11.40s into a -2.7 m/s headwind which converts the time to 11.1. She experienced severe hip pain in warm ups and was not able to run the 4x100m relay or 200m dash. In her absence Wollaston helped team T&T to a bronze medal in the relay.
Jamal Walton who was the U18 silver medalist in the 400m dash (46.23), finishing behind Akeem Bloomfield of Jamaica (46.01). Walton, a sophomore at Everglades High School in South Florida, was 7th in the U18 200m dash in a time of 21.42 competing for the Cayman Islands.