Track clubs mine seven Whitsuntide Games gold medals

The eight track and field clubs that represented St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) at the 2024 hosting of the Whitsuntide Games held last Saturday May 18, 2024, in Grenada returned home with seven gold medals.

However, the number represents a drop from last year’s taking when the clubs in combination tallied 10 gold medals.

The 2024 gold medal take saw High Performance (HP) and X- Ceed Sports Club claiming two golds each; with IT DAT Academy, X- Cel Track Club and Team Mustangs taking one each.

Mining gold medals for HP were Kenesha Richards who won the Under-17 Girls 100m with a 12.53s clocking, and Romaul James, who took the Men’s Open/ International Long Jump with a leap of 6.83m.

For X- Ceed Sports Club, Maxwell Pompey won the Men’s Open/ International Javelin Throw with a distance of 51.81m; with his younger sister, Nabia Pompey flinging 32.52m, to take top spot in the Girls Under-20 Discus.

Meanwhile, IT DAT Academy’s Andre Spencer topped the Men’s Open International Discus, throwing a distance of 41.44m; X- Cel Track Club’s Aaron Baisden, led the Under-13 Boys 100m in 12.45s; and

Team Mustangs’ Under-20 Boys 4 x 100m relay team placed first in a time of 42.60s.

The rest of the medal count and distribution, showed HP getting 11 silver and 3 bronze medals; X-

Ceed Sports Club, another 5 silver and 5 bronze; while X- Cel Track Club and Biomechanics each claimed one silver.

ROSES Academy and the St Vincent Grammar School Track Club, each got a solitary bronze medal, and Team Mustangs added 3 silver and 2 bronze medals to their takings, bringing the overall medal count to 40.

Last year, when the Whitsuntide Games were held over two days, the Vincentian clubs accumulated 46 medals, comprising 10 gold, 16 silver and 20 bronze.

The long -standing Whitsuntide Games which, said to have started in the 1950s, and experiencing intermittent stoppages, returned in 2022 after a two- year lay off because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Vincentian clubs captured 12 gold, 15 silver and 11 bronze medals that year with a total haul of 38.

Like in 2024, the 2022 edition of the Whitsuntide Games were held over one day.