James Tomlinson and Sarah Omoregie Lead The Way For Wales In The Bahamas

By Owen Morgan

 

Welsh athletes served up some sterling performances to win two silver medals at the Commonwealth Youth Games in the Bahamas.

Leading the way were throwers James Tomlinson and Sarah Omoregie who finished second in the discus and shot put, respectively.

The boys discus was the first event of the athletics programme at the sixth edition of the Commonwealth Youth Games, but after just one round the competition had to be suspended for an hour due to a massive lightning storm.

However, the Pembrokeshire Harrier refused to let the interruption faze him as he registered distances of 59.11m and 60.04 in the second and third rounds.

Indeed, that third round effort was enough to seal Tomlinson the silver medal, finishing almost four metres ahead of Djimon Lynere Gumbs, of the British Virgin Islands, who claimed bronze with 56.24m.

The gold medal was won by New Zealand’s Connor Bell with a throw of 63.17m.

Sarah Omoregie pictured competing at the recent British Athletics Championships. Pic: Owen Morgan.

On the same evening, Omoregie claimed silver in the girls shot put, breaking the British Under-18 record in the process.

The multi-eventer, who has been concentrating on the shot this season, also had to contend with the break for the lightning storm and produced her record breaking throw in the third round.

The 16.74m effort extended her personal best by almost half a metre and smashed the existing British under-18 mark.

The gold medal went to Canada’s Trinity Tutti, who recorded a distance of 17.82m.

On the second evening of competition in the Bahamas, Wales’ Naomi Reid was desperately unlucky not to claim a place in the 800m final.

Finishing fourth in a tactical first heat, the Cardiff AAC athlete, missed out on one of the top three automatic qualification places by just 0.14 of a second.

On the same evening, another Cardiff AAC athlete Lauren Evans also missed out on a place in the 100m hurdles final when she finished 6th in her heat in a time of 14.70.

The final Welsh athlete to compete in the games was Bethany Moule, who took park in the javelin on Saturday evening.

In blustery conditions, the Neath Harrier produced a best throw of 43.27 metres to finish a creditable sixth place in a field of 14 athletes.