By Loshaun Dixon
Basseterre, St. Kitts-For the 24th time in 41 years and for the fourth time in a row, Charles E Mills Secondary School (CEMSS), is once again winners of the TDC Inter-School, continuing its track and field supremacy across the three day competition held from March 31 to April 2,
The Silver Jubilee Stadium was at near capacity as thousands came out to see the CEMSS Eagles fly away with the competition and they faced no significant challenge from the other institutions.
The school celebrating their 50th anniversary this year picked up an impressive haul of 31 gold medals, 23 sliver and 12 bronze on their way to an impressive victory
Coming in a distant second was the Washington Archibald who captured 16 gold, 23 silver and 24 bronze. While the Charlestown Secondary captured 12 gold, 11 silver and 22 bronze
Sunday saw the most exciting race in the U18 boy 100m meters with a duel between the CEMSS’ Dimitri Browne who was still high off his victory in the 200m facing Marcus Duberry of Charlestown. The race saw numerous call backs due to noise in the stands and even had an athlete disqualified for a false start but when the race finally got underway even the Governor General Sir Tapley Seaton was on the edge of his seat looking on. However Mr. Duberry shot out of his blocks while Mr. Browne was a bit sluggish and powered his way to the finish line.
Duberry eventually won in a record time of 10.53 seconds, but it was Browne who had the final laugh as his 4x100m relay team captured gold ahead of Duberry’s team.
In the end the weekend belong to the CEMSS who had some stand out athletes one such athlete was Browne who not only won the 200m, he added gold and a new record of 7.01m in the Long Jump he captured silver in the 110m hurdles as well as winning the 4x100m relay and erased a 20meter lead on the final leg to win the 4x400m relay for his school.
Also standing out was his compatriot Jahnaza Francis who captured gold in the 110m hurdles, 400m hurdles, silver in the 400m as well as in the 4x100m and 4x400m races.
Also standing out for the champions were Ketriana Huggins who dominated the sprints in the U16 girls category and Trishanie Warner who won the middle distances in the U14 girls category
Speaking after the meet head coach of CEMSS Llewellyn Pyke stated that he predicted the large victory before the meet due to performances from 2016.
“I knew that before the Meet started, we would have win because the athletes that we have, based on performances from last year and coming into this year, they were in the same age category, so I knew it would have been a runaway,” he said.
Mr. Pyke was also asked as what he credits for the school’s dominance in Track and Field and stated that it all comes down to the athlete’s willingness to work hard. He added that he was also confident of sealing another victory next year even though the school will lose some of their top performers.
Victor Ludorum went to Janaza Francis of CEMSS and the VictrixLudorum went to Namibia Clavier of WAHS respectively.
At the end of the two day meet parents and alumni of the CEMSS celebrated their 24th championship and the continuation of a track and field dynasty that has spanned many a generation
