By: Kimberly Ramkhalawan
August 9, 2022
As the Commonwealth games came to a close in Birmingham, England on Monday and Caribbean athletes will be remembered as some of this year’s top performers. Jamaica came 12th in 72 participating nations coming home with 15 medals in total, Trinidad and Tobago at 15th with six medals in the bag and Barbados at the 20th position with three, Grenada and The Bahamas both at 23rd with two medals each.
The games saw Jamaican Elaine Thompson-Herah breaking a record winning the 200m in a Games record of 22.02 seconds, and adding the Commonwealth Games sprint on Saturday to her five Olympic gold medals.
Sticking to Jamaica, its sunshine girls won the silver medal to Australia in the decider on Sunday. The team went down 55-51 to Australia, marking the first time the yellow, green and black played a gold medal match at the commonwealth.
On Sunday, Jamaica’s female 4x400m team also got upgraded to silver after England crossed the line first was disqualified.
Barbados also had quite a performance on Sunday morning, bringing in three medals within the space of 18 minutes and also heralding a tweet from Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley congratulating its athletes “What a race! A Games record winning run for Sada Williams to take home the gold medal for Barbados in the Commonwealth Games W 400m Finals! Two finals, two medals in the bag!”
It was Shane Brathwaite’s silver in the Men’s 110m hurdles, 400m runner Jonathan Jones winning a bronze and finishing in lane five, clocking a time of 44.89.
But its Sunday morning was not complete until its Sada Williams in competition for the Women’s 400m Finals winning and breaking the fifty second barrier, with a time of 49.490 on the clock, now holding the Commonwealth Games record.
The final day Monday saw ten medals come home to the region, two gold, silver given and three bronze. In athletics, gold came home to Trinidad and Tobago 4×400 relay, Dwight St. Hillaire, Asa Guevara, Machel Cedenio and Jereem Richards leading the way to finish at 3.01.29 seconds. Richards broke his own record set, when he defended his 200m title previously set at19.83 seconds, but winning the event in 19.80.
The T&T men’s 4x100m team comprising of Jerod Elcock, Eric Harrison jnr, Kion Benjamin and Kyle Greaux secured silver during the relay on Sunday morning.
The winnings came one week after cyclist Nicholas Paul won gold in the keirin event, followed by silver in the men’s sprint and bronze in the 1km time trial.
The final games day also saw The Bahamas’ Devynne Charlton take second place medal in the women’s 100 metres hurdles. This came after Laquan Nairn, took the gold medal in the long jump final during the athletics competition in the Alexander Stadium.
In other triple jump standings, Bermuda, Jah-Nhai Perinchief took bronze in the men’s triple jump, while Dominica’s Thea Lafond took Silver in the women’s triple jump.
Grenada’s javelin thrower Anderson Peters won the silver medal in the men’s javelin final with a distance of 88.64 metres, placing second behind Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem, who won gold with a throw of a personal best and games record of 90.18m. The medal marked the second for the spice isle, after Lyndon Victor got the gold for the Men’s decathlon.
Out of a total of 18 Caribbean countries, 481 athletes participated this year bringing home 13 gold medals, 11 silver, and five bronze, a total 29 medals awarded to the region’s athletes this year.