Delhonni Nicol-Samuel mines Vincy’s gold at OECS Championships

Canadian-based Vincentian long distance athlete Delhonni Nicol-Samuel gained the lone gold medal for St Vincent and the Grenadines, at the third staging of the OECS Track and Field Championships at the Kirani James Athletics Stadium, last weekend.

Nicol-Samuel, in the process, retained the 5,000m title he attained last year in Tortola.

But his time this year was slower, as he clocked 15 minutes 37.41 seconds, opposed to his 15 minutes 8.62 seconds, recorded in 2016.

St Vincent and the Grenadines pouched 15 other medals – six silver and nine bronze.

The men’s 4x 400m team surrendered their gold won in 2016, as the combination of Akani Slater, Javiel Saxon, Kasique Oliver and Kimorie Shearman docked in second.

Slater was one of five individual silver medallists in the men’s 400m. Joining him were Shahalia Lynch in the women’s triple jump; Linda Mc Dowall in the women’s 1,500 and 3,000m and Jumonne Exeter in the men’s triple jump.

The bronze haul saw Zita Vincent accounting for three. She was third in the 800, 1,500 and 3,000m. Richard Crick, the men’s triple jump, Kineke Alexander, the women’s 400m; Jumonne Exeter, the men’s long jump, Kimorie Shearman, the men’s 400m and Kasique Oliver in the men’s 800m, all added bronze medals to the count.

Collectively, the grouping of Kineke Alexander, Annecia Richards, Shahalia Lynch and Shantel Williams was third in the women’s 4 x 400m.

The British Virgin Islands led the table with 10 golds, with Grenada gaining eight golds; St Kitts and Nevis, four and St Lucia and Antigua and Barbuda tied with three gold medals.

St Vincent and the Grenadines, with its one gold, was only better than Dominica and Anguilla, which did not gain a gold medal.