Tynelle Gumbs improved her national junior girls discus throw with a toss of 36.95 metres. Photo: DEAN?GREENAWAY A power outage and heavy rainfall weren’t enough to stop last Friday’s second meet of the Gatorade Development Series.

The competition was the first of three twilight meets of the series which ends in March.

Friday’s meet was named in honour of Virgin Islands Olympian Tahesia Harrigan-Scott.

Top Notch Track Club’s Tynelle Gumbs, the first 30-30 metre discus and javelin combination thrower, shattered her own discus mark of 30.66 metres with a throw of 36.95 metres in the under-20 girls event.

Her twin sister Trevia also improved her 29.95-metres best to 34.53 metres.

Ms. Gumbs is on track to receive a Sol National Record Breakers award, which will be doled out during the fifth BVI Athletics Association Gala, on Dec 28. An athlete establishing an indoor or outdoor national record and stands by the end of  season qualifies for the award.

Ms. Gumbs’ teammate on the under-20 boys team, Eldred Henry, flung the 1.75-kilogram discus  53.52 metres to qualify for the Pan Am Junior Championships and becoming the second junior all-time performer behind Eric “Shaq” Matthias’ 55.20 metres. Mr. Henry also had a foul that was over the 55-metres mark.

Kala Penn also of Top Notch Track Club came within 15 centimetres of the Carifta Games under-17 girls triple jump qualifying mark, when she cut the sand at 11.10 metres.

Competition on the track was no different, except that winds more than the allowable 2.0 metres per second prevented the females from qualifying for the Carifta Games and IAAF World Youth Championships.

With Sprint Tech’s Taylor Hill moving to the under-20 girls division this season, the field became more competitive as she and Top Notch’s Shaian Vandenburg set the tone in the sprints. Ms. Hill ran a windy 12.08 seconds in the 100 metres to best Ms. Vandenburg’s 12.13 seconds, while Ms. Hill’s teammate Jonel Lacey, who ran 12.09 seconds last year as an under-17 performer, took third on Friday in 12.38 seconds.

The illegal wind prevented Mses. Huggins, Hill and Lacey of an IAAF World Youth Championships (16 to 17 year olds) standard.

Sprint Tech’s Lakeisha “Mimi” Warner,  a Carifta under-17 girls 800-metre qualifier, added the 1500-metre event to her repertoire when she ran 5 minutes and 03.95 seconds in the event.  

The male track highlight was Top Notch’s Mark Kendal who was competing in the 400 metres, after winning the 100 metres in 10.91 seconds. However, all eyes were on Fast Lane’s under-20 boys Shaquoy “Tyson Gay” Stephens who opened with a 200 metre 21.89” personal best two weeks ago, and has gone under the 50-second barrier. Mr. Kendal, running on the inside lane, chewed up Mr. Stephens and the rest of the field early en route to a 49.15 seconds debut victory.

The under-17 boys and Mr. Kendal’s teammate Deshawn “Fast Man” Douglas came close to securing a Carifta Games qualifying spot, when he finished behind Mr. Stephens’ 50.42 seconds with his personal best effort of 50.79 seconds.

The next meet in the Gatorade Development Series is the Rose Phillips King Adams Classic on Feb 9. The meet begins at 10 a.m. Online registration will close on Feb 4.