North-West take NAAA Relays Festival crown

THE North-West zone ran away with the $10,000 winners’ prize after emerging as the champion team at the second edition of the Republic Bank/National Association of Athletics Administrations (NAAATT) Relays Festival at the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Mucurapo on Sunday.

The North-West contingent won over ten of the exciting relay races on the day, and they topped the meet with a tally of 248 points.

The South-Central zone grabbed second spot with 221 points and claimed a prize of $8,000. The North-East and Tobago zones took the third and fourth spots and were awarded $6,000 and $4,000 prizes respectively.

In the unique women’s 4x200-metre event, Carifta 2024 medallists Janae De Gannes and Symphony Patrick teamed up with the pair of Karessa Kirton and Imani Mills to take North-West over the line in 1:38.76.

The South-Central quartet of Kewes Gomes, Sierra Joseph, Diamond Paul and Kaziah Peters grabbed second spot in 1:39.88, while the North-East zone came third.

In the women’s 4x100-metre relay, North-West quartet repeated the trick in their duel with South-Central when they hit the line in 46.50 seconds, with the latter team clocking 47.07 seconds to take silver.

At this year’s Carifta Games in Grenada, De Gannes claimed one of TT’s three individual gold medals when she leapt to a Carifta record in the girls’ under-20 long jump event. De Gannes also showed her versatility when she played a pivotal role in TT’s girls’ under-20 4x400-metre silver medal performance.

In the men’s 4x200-metre relay, the North-East zone beat South-Central and North-West to the finish line in 1:25.48. The North-East quartet included TT quarter-miler Che Lara, who helped this country’s men’s 4x400-metre team seal Paris 2024 Olympic qualification at the World Athletics Relay championship in Bahamas earlier this month.

In the boys’ under-20 4x200-metre race, Carifta gold medallists Hakeem Chinapoo and Che Wickham received a surprise when their South-Central team were pipped to the line in an exciting battle with the North-East zone.

The North-East quartet of Daeshaun Cole, Enoch Joseph, Kareem Gibson and Jeremiah St John stopped the clock at 1:25.87, with Chinapoo, Wickham, Jahfari Farrel and Jordon Noel settling for an agonising silver in 1:25.93.

At Carifta, Chinapoo, Wickham and the pair of Mikhail Byer and Dylan Woodruffe engineered a famous win for Team TTO in the boys’ under-20 4x100-metre final when they defeated favourites Jamaica with a 40.45-seconds clocking.

In the NAAA boys’ under-20 4x100-metre race, the South-Central team of Byer, Chinapoo, Wickham and Noel showed their class when they defeated their North-East counterparts with a time of 40.96 seconds. North-East took second spot in 41.19 seconds, while North-West grabbed third spot with 42 seconds.

In both the boys’ under-17 4x100-metre and 4x200-metre relays, ace youth sprinter Kadeem Chinapoo and his South-Central team were made to settle for silver against the champion North-West team. In the 4x100-metre race, the North-West quartet of Shane Camejo, Kah-El Grant, Jonas Guytan and Kaeden Herbert, took home the gold in 42.27 seconds, with South-Central finishing in 42.90 seconds.

In the 4x200-metre race, both teams had one alteration to their lineup but the result remained the same as North-West took top spot in 1:30.17, with South-Central clocking 1:31.32.

The protective services weren’t to be left out of the action, and the Fire Services and the Air Guard won the respective women’s and men’s 4x100-metre titles in the protective services/masters category.