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Levern Provides Early Track Highlight
(2 February 2001) - To err is human. The other day I said the Amateur Athletics Association had begun its 2001 track and field season with a cross-country run. Well, cross-country isn't, strictly speaking, track and field. This time it's for real. The Junior and Senior Track and Field Challenge was held last Sunday at Mindoo Philip Park, getting underway fairly promptly, with nine clubs in attendance.
National women's high record holder Levern Spencer, 15, was outstanding. She cleared a height of 1.79m - her personal best is 1.80 and she was a bronze medallist at Carifta last year with a 1.73 clearance. She's hunting for gold this year. The Entrepot Secondary student is certainly in line for repeat honours as Junior Sportswoman of the Year, and ought to have been nominated for the senior title as well.
Levern's schoolmate, Mina Philip won the women's 800m and 1500m races, even if she did run well below her best. Abilene Wildcat Dionne Saltibus won the women's 100m (13.11s) and 200m (27.84) and another Wildcat, Nathan Justin (11.08 and 22.39) did the men's double. Abilene had a third success. Sarah Alexander, better known as a netballer, was the winner of the women's shot putt.
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Wilson Called Up For Windwards
(2 February 2001) - St. Lucia opening batsman and vice-captain Greg Wilson has been called up to the Windward Islands team for the fifth round Busta Cup first class contest against Barbados at Kensington Oval.
Wilson is expected to replace teenaged opener Devon Smith, the Windwards under-nineteen captain, who's been struggling for form in this competition. He, Wilson, joins Gros Islet middle order batsman John Eugene as the only St. Lucians on the Windwards squad. Eugene is the third leading scorer for the Windwards in Busta Cup action this year, but the sub-regional team has not batted well at all so far. They are yet to earn a single point, the only team out of eight with that dubious distinction.
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Umpires' Seminar On this Weekend
(2 February 2001) - The St. Lucia Umpires Association will hold a two-day seminar at the Mindoo Philip Park Saturday and Sunday this weekend. Billy Doctrove, the Test umpire from Dominica, will facilitate the seminar along with Golan Graves of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
According to officials of the local Association, this weekend's seminar is open to umpires, other officials, coaches and players. The purpose of the seminar is to update concerned persons as to the new laws, including such things as penalty runs, new signals and so on.
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Ewan Paces WU To Big Win
(1 February 2001) - St. Lucian forward Ewan Auguste posted his second straight double-double (19 points and 14 rebounds) as the Washburn University Ichabods dominated Missouri Southern, 98-80, in a home game Wednesday evening. Ewan converted nine of eleven field goal attempts. He also had three assists. Randolph Williams, a forward from St. Vincent and the Grenadines, tallied 20 points for the Ichabods, ranked 15th in Division II. The win kept Washburn (15-3, 8-2 MIAA) tied for first place in their conference.
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Indie Netball Tips Off Next Week
(30 January 2001) - The St. Lucia National Netball Association will begin its 2001 programme of competition with the Independence Tournament. On Saturday, 10 February, everyone will be seeking (as usual) to unseat Shamrock. Action begins 2:45pm at the Vigie Multipurpose Sports Complex. This weekend, however, all three national teams are due to get into training for various regional encounters, culminating in the AFNA Championships in the third quarter of this year. According to SLNNA president Fortuna Belrose, the under-sixteen, under-twenty-three and senior national teams will begin preparing simultaneously for their 2001 campaigns.
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Tennis Season Starts With Vets
(31 January 2001) - Christopher Hunte, Public Relations Officer of the St. Lucia Tennis Association, possesses a vivid imagination. For instance, the SLTA 2001 opener is called the Heineken Veterans Dynamic Duo Doubles Tournament, and it gets underway Monday evening.
The Heinie Vets 3D Tourney (I'm not all that unimaginative either) is a sixteen draw, so it's just going to last one week. It's restricted to players who are at least thirty-five years old, including spring chickens Bernard Forde, Tony Roheman, Norman and Roger Sutherland, Colin Hunte and Hollis Bristol. It'll all go down, of course, at Club St. Lucia's Racquet Club.
Also on Monday, the SLTA will welcome back its number one Davis Cup player, Kane Easter. Kane, 26, is based in Miami, where he's employed as a chemical engineer. Kane will lead a strong team comprising Sirsean Arlain, Gary Eugene and either Yves Sinson or David Dauvergne into Davis Cup American Zone Group IV hosted by Haiti in March.
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Windwards Footie In March
(31 January 2001) - The St. Lucia national football team is in for a busy time in March, according to a report from the Caribbean News Agency. The CANA report out of Grenada today stated that the heads of football associations in the Windward Islands of St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Dominica and Grenada have agreed to begin a new structured tournament in March.
Co-ordinator Patrick John of Dominica said the Windward Islands competition, as it will be called, will take place in Grenada from March 11-18, 2001. He said most of the other islands will not have their playing fields available because of cricket and therefore Grenada would stage this year's competition.
The dates announced for this tournament mean that St. Lucia's national team will travel to Grenada straight from Guyana, where they'll be contesting Group One of the Copa Caribe regional tournament.
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WIWCF, WICB Meet In Castries
(31 January 2001) - The organisations responsible for women and men's cricket in the Caribbean are looking to forward a mutual agenda. The West Indies Cricket Board - represented by Chief Executive Officer Gregory Shillingford - met with executive members of the West Indies Women's Cricket Federation last weekend at the Department of Youth and Sports in Castries.
Among the items on the agenda at last Saturday's meeting were the five-year plan of development set out by the WIWCF; collaboration in terms of coaching and training; sponsorship and marketing support; the lunching of the West Indies Cricket Academy in Grenada; and the tour by the Lancashire women's team to the Caribbean in April of this year.
A press communiqué from Laurie Auguste, Secretary of the WIWCF, stated: "the discussions.gave rise to a new optimism on the part of both organisations. Mr. Shillingford commended the efforts of the Federation to date, and pledged his support for [the Federation's] future initiatives."
The WIWCF has been working towards increasing the popularity of women's cricket throughout the region. When the regional competition was held in St. Lucia last year, a record six teams participated; St. Lucia emerged victors for the third consecutive year. This year, with the Lancashire tour (similar to what the WICB did by introducing England A to the Busta Cup) the WIWCF is hoping to improve the standard of the game.
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Windwards…
(28 January 2001) - THE Leeward Islands scored a nine-wicket victory against the Windward Islands before lunch on the fourth day of their Busta Cup cricket match at the Queens Park National Stadium this morning.
The victory was the more remarkable considering that the Leewards were 99 for six on the first morning, as the Windwards now consider what might have been.
They batted poorly, as they have done throughout the tournament, but their cause was not helped either by some poor umpiring decisions that went against them. They also dropped some crucial catches, but the Leeward Islands lower ordered also performed beyond expectations, including a career high 70 from pace bowler Kerry Jeremy.
Jeremy, recently back from the West Indies tour of Australia, was Man-Of-The-Match. He took a match haul of seven for 86.
The additional 12 points in this game now bring the Leeward Islands to 30 and keep them in the running for Busta Cup honors.
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Kunta, Max, QC Fourth At Vassar
(27 January 2001) - The Queen's College Knights won a game and lost two this weekend to end fourth at a men's invitational volleyball tournament hosted by Vassar College. For QC, St. Lucia national player Maxim Auguste was great. A junior playing outside hitter, he was the only Knight on the All-Tournament team. Ayinde Williams also played well. He's another St. Lucia national player, former volleyball player of the year and a sophomore setter for Queen's.
The Knights opened against the host school, losing 3-0. For Queens, Maxim was second on his team with 12 kills. Kunta assisted on 27 of the Knights' 40 kills. They ended up as team tournament leaders in kills and assists respectively. MIT was the Knights' only victim, losing 3-0 in a Friday evening contest. Roger Williams defeated Queens 3-1 in the third place playoff.
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Unknown St. Lucian Excels
(28 January 2001) - The NCAA Division III Albright College track and field Lions of Pennsylvania opened their 2001 indoor season with victories in a five-team meet hosted at Albright College on Saturday, 20 January. The women compiled 105 points to take first place honors.
Freshman Laura Jean from Upper Dauphin High School in Elizabethville, PA, set a new school record in the 55-meter dash. She sprinted to a 7.76 second finish, bettering the 7.89 set by Cynthia Greenburg in 1996.
Laura, 18, is a St. Lucian-born sprinter. She's the younger sister of Jim Sparks, chairman of the St. Lucia National Trust. Last year, when Laura was graduating from high school, she was regarded as a solid Division I prospect. Instead, she opted to stay close to home at Albright.
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St Lucian Modeste to defend boxing title
(28 January 2001) - 35-year-old St Lucian boxer Benjamin (the Tiger) Modeste will make the first defence of his World Boxing Council (WBC) Continental super lightweight title against Trinidadian Ulric Johnson 24 February at the YMCA in Bridgetown, Barbados. It's a happy hunting ground for the Barbados-based Tiger, who won his WBC title there last September.
Modeste is confident he will beat Johnson, who held a world top-10 ranking with the International Boxing Federation (IBF) in the 1990s. "This title is going no where in Trinidad, it's staying right here in Barbados with me," said Modeste, who boasts a record of 26 wins against four defeats.
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