Nationals 2011

So yesterday was nationals!!! Yup! Tobago, Toco, and many other districts came together to compete for the title of National champions 2011! I on the other hand was focusing on obtaining third place in the shot put. With national athletes, Hezekiel Romeo and Akeem Stewart in the same age category as I am, I had no chances of pulling off a second place victory.

Although third place was my goal, it was not "in the bag" for me. There were other athletes like Kyle Preudhomme and Micah Mc nish also competing for the spot. To top that off my coach, Ishmael Lopez told me if I allowed Micah to beat me, I am not allowed to train under his name, so my reputation and my career was on the line!

At the beginning of the throws, I was doing okay as I took the lead of Micah by a couple centimeters. I was pretty confident that 3rd place was mine! On the last round however, Micah threw 12.7 meters and that topped all of my previous throws. At this point, my coach looked at me and I could feel the energy coming out of him. I began to panic, legs began to shake the whole works! As I walked into the circle, the nerves turned to adrenaline!! I pulled off a 12.9m throw which took the third place home for me!

I was overjoyed at that point but then it hit me, the top 8 throwers had to go for another round! In this round neither myself nor Mc Nish threw beyond the 12.9 mark so it was official! I took home the bronze!


In the end, Hezekiel Romeo (Port Of Spain) took home gold Akeem Stewart (Tobago) took home silver and Garth Williams Port Of Spain) took home Bronze