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4x100m Team Rescues Pan-Am Track and Field
Volleyball Season Ends With a Dramatic Vitamalt Finale
3rd August - The Cable and Wireless Ciceron Seagulls are celebrating their 25th anniversary in style. The Seagulls women won the Vitamalt National League in a sweep of Le Club volleyball on July 25. The Seagulls men had to wait a little over a week before they had the chance to complete their half of the double against Jetsetters.
Tuesday night, August 3, the scene was set for an upset at the Vigie Multipurpose Sports Complex. Behind fabulous hustle from Ayinde Kunta Williams and great defense from Dayne Williams (no relation) the Jetsetters took set number one 25-20. Seagulls never looked to be in the game.
Down two nil in the series, Jetsetters were fighting to extend their season. The young talented team fought well, even though Ciceron began to creep back in towards the end. The Williams boys were again all over the court; and Jetsetters held on for a 26-24 victory and a lead of two sets to none.
Momentum swung in set number three. The experienced Seagulls rallied behind solid hitting which compensated for an often lackadaisical defense. With Candidus "Dread" Brown at the heart of the attack, Seagulls came away with the third sets and kept alive their hopes of a series sweep.
The final two sets of the Vitamalt National League competition were anticlimactic. Jetsetters were all over the court, with Kunta Williams defending, setting and establishing the tone for his team. But Jetsetters were simply outmatched by a superior side. Seagulls won 20-25, 24-26, 25-19, 25-14 and 15-9.
On Wednesday evening the St. Lucia Amateur Volleyball Association staged an awards ceremony for outstanding individual players
St. Lucian Team Off to Caribbean Juniors
Meanwhile a twenty one member contingent will leave St. Lucia this weekend for the Caribbean Junior Championships in Jamaica. A nine member women's team and an eight member men's team will contest these championships, the men under Villan Edwards and the women Marcia Vite.
Assisting Edwards with the men's team is Kunta Williams. Tombstone's Jason Octave will lead the men on the court, with Neil Octave (Le Club) his vice-captain. Garvinia Gill of Le Club is the women's captain, Shana Aubrey (Seagulls) vive-captain. John Calderon is team manager.
The Caribbean Junior Championships will run August 5-16, and this is one of the stronger teams that St. Lucia has fielded in this tournament. St. Lucia's first game will be played on Saturday evening. The national men's and women's teams to Jamaica read as follows:
Men
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Jason OCTAVE (Tombstone)
Dayne WILLIAMS (Jetsetters)
Kevin JEAN (Seagulls)
Kirchner DOLCIE (Phoenix) |
Neil OCTAVE (Le Club)
Dionus AUGUSTUS (Jetsetters)
Dillon PROSPERE (Phoenix)
Sherman ELIBOX (Jetsetters) |
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Women
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Garvinia GILL (Le Club)
Leanne St. ROSE (Jetsetters)
Signa PRESIDENT (Jetsetters)
Samantha MANN (Le Club)
Chrisy LAURENT (Phoenix) |
Shana AUBREY (Seagulls)
Daishia MARTIAL (Jetsetters)
Lydia HARRIS (Le Club)
Prisca SIMON (Seagulls) |
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Top St. Lucian Juniors Back From International Camp
Eighteen year old St. Lucian tennis players Yves Sinson and Sirsean Arlain recently returned to St. Lucia from a month-long training camp in Florida. The Performance Tennis Academy was conducted under the auspices of the International Tennis Federation. According to Arlain "the level of coaching and personal supervision was so high, it was great."
Arlain and Sinson learned a lot about match tactics and physical preparation during their time in Florida.
The Coca-Cola/ITF International Junior Tennis Tournament will be played August 9-14 at the St. Lucia Racquet Club, with over 125 players down to participate. Sinson is defending champion in the 16-18 age group; much is expected of himself and Arlain in this competition. Later this year they will play the Ibis tournament in Trinidad.
Later this year, Arlain hopes to begin university in Florida on a tennis scholarship. A number of Florida schools are interested in adding him to their teams. Meanwhile, looking forward to competing for St. Lucia in Davis Cup tennis next year, Arlain says that "Davis Cup will definitely be fun; I want to come back for Davis Cup."
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St. Lucia Well Represented in Golf
terry finisterre
3rd August - CHRIS TAYLOR leads three St. Lucian golfers named to the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States team for the Caribbean Amateur Championships, August 16-22 in Providenciales, Turks and Caicos. The eighteen year old Cap Estate resident is having a great year . He just wrapped up a successful season in the United States on the International Junior Golf Tour, ending his four-year career as the only non-American in the top ten overall. In July he added a victory in the 16-18 division at the Caribbean Junior Golf Championships. In September Taylor heads for Division II Coker College in South Carolina, where he'll join Joel McEacherne of St. Kitts. McEchearne is also on the senior team for Turks and Caicos.
The other two men on the OECS team are Brad Paul, who will be competing in the seniors division, and George Noon in the super seniors. Meanwhile, four of six players have been called up to the St. Lucia team for the Eastern Caribbean Championships in St. Croix. Defending individual champion Eugene Edwin will be joined by Cliff Alcide, Ames Amos and Paul Ambrose for the October tournament. Two more players will be named by Sunday of this week.
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Legends Coach Puts St. Lucia On The Map
corwin adrian
A young woman approached Ricky Deligny recently on the University Of Michigan campus. "Someone told me that St. Lucia is the most beautiful island in the Caribbean," she said. "Is that true?" Ricky had to tell her that she had been misinformed. "St. Lucia," he said "is the most beautiful island in all the world." Most people would have to agree with Ricky's assessment - and as St. Lucia slowly builds a reputation in the world of track and field, more and more people are hearing about the Eastern Caribbean jewel.
Ricky could play a major role in helping St. Lucia get to where nations like the Bahamas, Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago have been for decades. He recently graduated from Eastern Michigan University with a baccalaureate in Sports Medicine, and he's hoping to start his Masters program in Sports Management in the year 2000. Meanwhile, Ricky just took up a job as assistant coach at University of Michigan. He's responsible for coaching the Wolverines men in all field events and the decathlon.
Caribbean coaches like Deligny (also Ron Boyce at Southwest Missouri State and Ernest Barrett at Coppin State) are changing the face of collegiate track and field. Michigan men's track and field head coach Ron Warhurst notes that "Deligny has a wealth of technical knowledge." The young St. Lucian is so highly regarded that he is the only one of four assistants not to have attended Michigan. It's a long way from the Legends Track and Field Club to one of North America's most powerful sports programmes, but Ricky makes it look easy.
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Ting™ Walkathon: In Good Shape for 2000
terry finisterre
2nd August - Windward and Leeward Brewery Ltd. today held the inaugural Ting™ Walkathon. In partnership with Paradise Springs and BWIA International, WLBL re-launched the popular grapefruit soft drink with a walk from Castries to Pigeon Island. More than 350 participants registered for the walk. It was estimated that over 65% of the walkers were women.
Shelly Black, the Marketing Manager at WLBL, told me that this morning's activity was really an exploratory exercise. "We're going to come even better next year," said Shelly. The Brewery enlisted the aid of the Amateur Athletics Association in staging the Walkathon, proceeds from which will go towards the National Council for the Disabled.
There were very few dropouts, especially considering that the sun was boiling! at 7am. Unsurprisingly, the guys up at the front were mainly seasoned runners (Roadbusters took the team title). As often happens in events of this nature, people began sorting themselves according to ability in short order, some strolling, some power walking.
Once the walkers got to the Pigeon Island Causeway, of course the Ting™ was on (not to mention the other, stronger beverages distributed by the Brewery). The results were tabulated and entered into a computer, a move which created a significant time lag, but which also allowed the Brewery to more accurately determine group winners.
One sore point for the ladies: they weren't placed in different divisions, and so there was only one woman winner (Candia Esnard); the guys competed in at least four different divisions. I asked Shelly why that was. "Well, so many ladies chose not to give their ages when they were registering, so it was difficult to have separate divisions for them."
It's something for WLBL to look at as they prepare to do it again next year. Too, there probably should be a "runners" division and one for "walkers". The AAA was monitoring, but some competitors may have jogged…just a little bit. All in all, though, a great success for WLBL and the Council for the Disabled, and certainly something to add to the calendar.
SELECTED RESULTS FROM THE INAUGURAL TING™ WALKATHON
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Division |
Competitor |
Age (Affiliation) |
Finish |
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Men's overall |
Ricky Louis |
26 (Castries) |
1:07:48 |
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Masters |
Victor Ledgers |
32 (Roadbusters) |
1:07:48 |
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Women |
Candia Esnard |
23 (Roadbusters) |
1:21 (10th) |
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Veterans |
Costello Michel |
51 (Cap Estate) |
1:23:43 (13th) |
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Oldest man |
Dave Dubois |
64 (Roadbusters) |
1:28:22 (19th) |
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Under 17 |
Marlon James |
16 (Not stated) |
1:34:30 |
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Handicapped |
Bertram Emmanuel |
-- |
-- |
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Company |
JE Bergasse |
-- |
1:47 average |
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Special Mention |
"Twatinez" Modeste
Wayne St. Ange
Jason Sayers |
37 (Not stated)
23 (Roadbusters)
25 (Corinth) |
4th overall
5th overall
8th overall |
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4x100m Team Rescues Pan-Am Track and Field
terry finisterre
31st July - The St. Lucia Olympic Committee sent a ten member team to the XIII Pan-American Games in Winnipeg Canada. Seven of the eight track and field competitors had represented St. Lucia successfully at the Central American and Caribbean Games in June. The two swimmers had been named as wild card entries, having failed to make qualifying times in their respective events.
After four days of competition, all the track and field athletes had underachieved in their individual events. Even pole vaulter Dominic Johnson, a CAC champion and record holder, failed to clear a height in his pet event. Along with Verneta Lesforis, Dominic heads for the World Championships in Seville, Spain in August. Verneta won the 400m dash at CAC in Barbados.
Dominic and his partners on the 4x100m men's relay team were left with the task of redeeming St. Lucia's participation in the Winnipeg Games. A month earlier at CAC, Dominc, Dane Magloire, Ronald Promesse and Emile John had set a new national record in that event, placing fifth at the CAC Games in a time of 41.01 seconds. All four were in Winnipeg.
Running in a strong semifinal, which included host team Canada with Donovan Bailey, St. Lucia ran 40.84 seconds to place fourth and qualify for the finals. It was the only measure of success attained by the St. Lucian team up to that point in time. Dominic Johnson remarked that "if we can get a better handoff, I think we can definitely run under 40 seconds."
Dominic wasn't quite right. Damian Henville was drafted in to replace Magloire in the finals (Magloire was also in the finals of the triple jump) and the quartet set yet another national record (40.54 seconds). Unfortunately they finished eighth, but the fact that this group is running so well is telling. It's a great and encouraging sign for St. Lucia track and field.
Consider this: the current national record is held by a group which includes a pole vaulter and a long jumper. They may be excellent relay runners, but what if a genuine sprint relay team were to compete at CAC or Pan-Am? There's Anslem Kurt Felix at Iowa, Nihemiah St. Jean in Soufriere, Gimry Lewis, Edmund Estephane – under 40 seconds? Definitely.
Whatever happens at the World Championships (we'll be sure to keep you posted) it's been an outstanding year for St. Lucian track and field. Twenty year old Augustina Charles went up to Soutwest Missouri State University and set about destroying the national mark in the 800m. Verneta won that memorable CAC title and Dominic followed with his outstanding vault.
There were great performances locally, people like national shot putt champion Tamara Popo, head and shoulders above everyone but sprint diva Jineil Vite-O'Neil. The men's sprint wars heated up, with Gimry Lewis and Damian Henville battling hard to keep up with Nihemiah St. Jean. They're all young (well, except Emile) and they'll do St. Lucia proud in years to come.
This week Sherrie Scobie-Henry and Jamie Peterkin take part in the swimming competition at the XIII Pan-Am Games, but it's al over for the track and field contingent. Next up, world Championships
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