Grenada bagged two medals at Pan-Am Jrs.

by Michael Bascombe

ST GEORGE’S, Grenada, Aug 4 – Grenada returned with two medals from the Pan American Junior Track and Field Championships at the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Trinidad.

World Youth 400m champion, Kirani James continued his dominating form over the one-lap event with a comfortable victory in 45.43 seconds on Friday. Rondell Bartholomew picked up the bronze in 46.61 seconds.

The other competitors – Akim Bowen, Josh Charles and Shakir Simmons – didn’t medal in the weekend championship.

Bowen was 15^th in the 100m preliminaries in 10.76 seconds and didn’t qualify to the next round; Charles also failed to advance in the 200m finishing in 22.68 seconds while Simmons was 9^th in the shot put with a distance of 16.75m.

The 400m relay team of James, Bartholomew, Bowen and Charles finished 5^th in 3:11.91 (3 mins 11 point nine one seconds) behind winner the United States, Trinidad and Tobago, Canada and Jamaica.

The United States easily dominated the tournament with 21 gold medals, 22 silver and 13 bronze medals, followed by Cuba (6-0-0), Mexico (3-4-2), Jamaica (3-3-8) and Canada (3-3-7).

Brazil (2-6-5), Colombia (2-1-1), Argentina (1-1-0), Grenada (1-0-1), Chile (1-0-1), Panama (1-0-0), Trinidad & Tobago (0-4-1), Puerto Rico (0-1-0), Venezuela (0-0-1), the Bahamas (0-0-1), Barbados (0-0-1) and Paraguay (0-0-1) completed the standings.