Samuel, Mc Kenzie looking to dominate at Inter Schools Championships

Omar Samuel and Truloni Mc Kenzie are both looking to be dominant in events they compete in at this year’s staging of the National Lotteries Authority Inter Secondary Schools’ Athletics Championships.{{more}}

Samuel, of the Thomas Saunders Secondary, wants to cop the sprint double in the intermediate Division, as he is a finalist in both, when the championships run off on March 25 at the Arnos Vale Playing Field.

He ran 11.99 seconds in the 100m in the heats, to record the fastest time heading to the finals. His 24.21 seconds put him as the second fastest in the 200m.

The 16-year-old Samuel also would play a part in his school’s 4x100m and 4x400m relay team.

The Thomas Saunders quartets registered the best times in both runs in the heats.

Expecting only the “best,” Samuel relishes the thought of double.

“I want to win both individual events, plus help my team in the relays,” Samuel projected.

“I only began taking athletics seriously coming to the end of my year in Form two … Before that I was all basketball,” Samuel, who received his primary school education on the Grenadine island of Canouan, remarked.

Hoping to make the final cut for the school’s team to the Penn Relays next month in the USA, Samuel is, however, focused on giving his school the best chance of regaining the Male Division of the Inter Schools’ Championships.

Like Samuel, the St Martin’s Secondary’s Mc Kenzie is placed in the Intermediate Division, but Mc Kenzie’s forte is the middle distance.

Mc Kenzie, 15, is a finalist in the 400m, 800m and the 1500m, and forms part of his school’s 4 x 400m relay combination.

Mc Kenzie goes into the final with the fastest time in his pet event – the 800m. In the 400m, he enters the final with the third fastest and the 1500m – fourth.

But Mc Kenzie thinks that he has it in him to end at the top of the podium in the three events, despite the threats posed by the Bethel High School’s Slyford Lampkin.

“I want to win my three races and go on to be the Intermediate Champion,” Mc Kenzie proposed.

Laid back in his demeanour, Mc Kenzie sees the day of the championships as his date to shine.

“I am always encouraged by my coach Pamenos Ballantyne, my family and friends to do my best and stick with the sport,” Mc Kenzie said.

Mc Kenzie, who was part of St Vincent and the Grenadines’ contingent to the Caribbean Union of Teachers Games in Trinidad, is taking things in stride as he seeks to optimize every opportunity afforded him in the sport.(RT)