Abilene Wildcats' Shakeem McKay dominates NAAA trials

SHAKEEM McKay, who represented TTO at the World Athletics U20 Championship Men’s 200-metre event in Kenya, last year, has once again qualified to lead the country in the same event in August.

The 18-year-old dominated both the semifinal and final of the Boys U-20 200m dash on Sunday, the second and final day of the National Association of Athletics Administration of TT’s (NAAA) Carifta Trials at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Port of Spain.

The Abilene Wildcats stand-out snatched gold in 21.38 seconds, dipping well under both the respective Carifta Games and World Under-20 Athletics Championships qualifying standards of 21.92 and 21.40 seconds.

Getting used to both competing and winning, McKay said, “I didn’t feel any pressure,” following the final. “I just trust and believe in all the hard work I’ve been putting in in training, and come out and execute,” he said.

McKay, who is predominantly a 200m sprinter, said he only runs the longer distances in training to strengthen his abilities in his preferred shorter distances.

McKay bettered his personal best in the semifinal, clocking 21.12 seconds, but with wind assistance of +4.9 seconds.

Last month, McKay secured qualifying times for the Carifta Games in both the Men’s U-20 200m and 400m events at the NAAA third track and field series event. Memphis Pioneers’ Keone John took silver in 21.79 seconds and Jaden De Souza of Phoenix Athletics placed third in 21.92 seconds. John and De Souza also secured Carifta qualification standards for their efforts.

The top three runners entered the final having secured quicker times in the semifinals, albeit with considerable wind assistance.

Abilene Cats’ Daeshaun Cole won the penultimate race, the Boys Under-17 200m dash, in 22.30 seconds, followed by Kaiyin Morris of Cougars in 22.40 seconds, with both dipping below the Carifta qualifying standard of 22.44 seconds.

Kyah La Fortune won the final Girls U-20 event of the day, the 200m dash, in 24.63 seconds, just shy of the Carifta qualifying standard (27.37 seconds).

Zenith’s Alexxe Henry won the U-17 equivalent in 25.15 seconds.

Aniqah Bailey (One A Week) and Kayleigh Forde (Cougars) placed first and second, respectively, in the Girls U-17 800 run, with both dipping below the Carifta standard of two minutes, 24.84 seconds, with Bailey snatching gold in 2:21.27 and Forde taking silver in 2:24.05.

Rinaldo Moore of Memphis Pioneers was dominant in the Boys U-20 400m hurdles, beating his nearest challenger by over eight seconds.

Moore claimed gold in 55.27 seconds, just shy of the 54.33-second Carifta qualifying standard.

In a rare qualification among boys’ field events, Aaron Antoine of Neon Wolves crossed the two-metre qualifying standard for the PanAm Junior Championships and the Carifta Games, when he soared 2.10m to win gold in the U-20 high jump.

Adrianna Quamina of D’Abadie, meanwhile, went under the qualifying Carifta standard (33.15m) in the Girls U-17 discus throw (1kg), with her gold medal-winning effort of 33.70m.

National triathlete Troy Llanos, representing Fatima College, narrowly missed the Carifta qualifying standard (1:56.28) in the Boys Under-20 800m run, when he won the event in 1:56.71.

Some 19 athletes secured qualification standards for the Carifta Games on Saturday.