The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

Once again the Ambassadors Track Club hosted a successful edition of the Fritz Grant Track Classic at the Thomas A Robinson Track and Field Stadium last weekend.

The 9th edition of the meet featured a series of outstanding performances highlighted by the country’s leading quartermiler stepping down from his signature event to compete in the shorter sprints.

National 400 metre record holder Steven Gardiner ran to first place finishes in both the 100 and 200.

The 21-year-old, running under High Performance, ran 10.30 seconds (wind 3.7)  in heat five of the century to finish as the top overall performer.

Last year’s meet winner, Shane Jones of Star Elite Athletics,  finished second overall in 10.42 followed by Lavardo Smith, Unattatched, in 10.58.

Samson Colebrooke of Swift Athletics was fourth in 10.69 and Cameron Oliver of Fast Forward rounded out the top five in 10.70.

In the 200 metres, Gardiner ran to another wind-aided (2.3) time of 20.53.

College of the Bahamas’ Yurick Dean finished second in 21.56, Tavonte Mott of Star Elite Athletics was third in 21.72, Smith and Oliver tied for fourth in 21.75 and Ramon Miller finished sixth in 22.20.

Lanece Clarke, another High Performance quartermiler, achieved a similar feat in the shorter sprints.She took the 100m in 11.46, followed by Sasha Wells of Club Monica in 12.08, with Bree Bennett of High Performance third in 12.54.

Clarke followed with the top spot in the 200m at 23.63.

In the field, Perry Adderley of Roadrunners captured the men’s shot put with 13.35 metres and Gerrard Burrows of Throwers Inc took the discuss with a throw of 45.23m.

Leap of Faith teammates Kenya Culmer (1.60m) and Celine Thompson (1.55m) topped the standings in the open women’s high jump.

Blayre Fernander, also from Leap of Faith, won the men’s high jump with 1.95m.

Some of the top juniors also performed as expected in the meet. In the 100m – Nathan Moss of Fast Forward took the under-15 boys event in 11.27 (2.3) while Max Azor of Swift Athletics took the under-18 boys’ event in 10.57 (2.8).

In the girls’ under-18 400m, Doneisha Anderson of TWD Athletics easily took the 400m in 56.37, followed by Marissa White of Club Monica in 57.16 and TWD’s Chanice Forbes in 59.69.

Anderson also took the 200m in 24.66 while Azor took the under-18 event in 21.86.

Ambassadors’ head coach Fritz Grant, in previous editions of the meet, told the Tribune of his perceived importance of the meet.

“It is always competitive and is a meet that caters to both the CAC age group athletes and those who are trying to make the various junior and senior national teams. We had some of the elite athletes and we had a lot of the age group athletes. The support was very good and the competition was good,” Grant said. “We have both the junior and senior nationals coming up in June, so it was a good meet for the athletes to get ready. The athletes are able to do some fine tuning and the coaches get to see where the athletes are.”

As the patron of the meet, Grant said he is grateful to God and humble that his club has seen it fit to honour him in this manner.

“My whole philosophy is developing young people, the youth of the country, and putting back what people have invested in me,” he said. “It’s just a great experience and I feel thankful and grateful for this opportunity. It’s all about development. I use the holistic approach of developing young people and building characters and helping them to showcase their lives in athletics. So I’m honoured that it is held in my name.”

• Full meet results can be found at www.tekresults.net