The inaugural Invictus Reggae Classic Track & Field Meet, held this past Friday and Saturday at the Truman Bodden Sports Complex, saw Dominic Dyer confirm his status as the region’s top junior middle distance runner.

Having dominated the Under 20’s at this year’s Carifta Games, he turned back the challenge of the two Junior athletes, who were unable to compete at the Carifta Games, capable of rivaling his claim for the top spot. Kingston College’s duo of Shane Buchanan and Rodgers Aryamanya arrived on the Island following stellar performances from this year’s Jamaica’s Boys & Girls Champs and could be forgiven for thinking that similar winning results awaited them here in the Cayman Islands.

In the Men’s Open 1500m, which brought the curtain down on Friday’s program Dyer produced a devastating burst over the last 300m, to which the vaunted KC duo simply had no answer, as he cruised home in a time of 4:05:98 to Buchanan’s 4:10:88 and Rodgers’ 4:10:98.

The KC duo returned on Saturday evening with a clear plan to frustrate the taller Dyer. It was clear that their strategy was to take turns in exchanging the lead between them, control the tempo of the race and box-in Dyer as much as possible. They failed to include in their calculation Dyer’s teammate, Will Edwards. As he did on the night before Edwards went to the front from the start and took control of the pace for the first four laps of the 7 and a half laps encounter, while Dyer bided his time behind the top three. With 4 laps to go Rogers surged to the front followed closely by Buchanan and for the next two laps, both of them increased the pace but failed to shake off the looming presence of Dyer. With two laps to go and a raucous home-crowd roaring him on Dyer turned on the after burners, circled his more diminutive opponents and set sail for home in an impressive 9:02:76 to Rodgers 9:12:47 and Buchanan’s 9:13:09.

Other notable performances at the Meet included a very impressive 27.91 200m clocking by Special Olympics’ Jharan Greenidge; a fine sprint double and Long Jump victory from Falcons Athletics’ Bradley Erskine Jr. who turned in 12.59 (100m), 25.56 (220m) and 5.06 (Long Jump); Invictus’ Aijah Lewis who turned in a Personal Best 5.55m (Long Jump) in turning back the challenge of National Record Holder, Mustang’s Annissa Owens (5.51m); Mustangs’ Daneliz Thomas in the Women’s Open Javelin (39.77m); Invictus’ Umar Gordon in the Under 13 Boys 400m (1:06:50); and Falcon Athletics’ Jaden Francis 26.11 (200m).

In the Primary Schools’ Division of the Meet Sir John A Cumber walked away with the 50” flat screen television as their athletes amassed 7 Gold Medals to Red Bay’s 4 with the top performers being Tarique Beckford (John A Cumber) in the Under 9 Boys category, and Mikayla Brown (John A Cumber).

In the Security Services Division competition was keen and the rivalry was high between teams from Immigration and the Fire Services. With the relays to go Immigration had a 2-point lead over the Fire Services. After winning both of the 400m sprint relays Fire entered the final event knowing that Immigration needed a victory and their either not finishing race or being disqualified to win. This was not to be as Fire easily won the mixed sex 800m Medley Relay to end up with 173 points to Immigrations 163 points. Fire’s efforts were in large part due to some good running from former National Youth athletes Jon-Mikol Rankine who was impressive in the 100m (11.67) and Amelia Gillespie. Equally impressive was Immigration’s Agueda Blake who showed good form in winning the 400m and 200m while finishing second in the 100m. Immigration’s “Lord” Barron Solomon also had a good Meet as he won the Men’s Javelin, finished second in the 400n and third in the 100m. For their victorious effort, the Fire Services won not only the Invictus Security Services Cup but also a 15” flat screen television.

The Meet, which was under the distinguished patronage of His Excellency the Deputy Governor of the Cayman Islands Mr. Franz Manderson was sponsored by the Red Sail Group, Saxon Insurance, Dart, CTMH-Doctors Hospital, RVC Rehab Services, Beyond Basics, Rubis (Cayman) Ltd., Savannah Medical Clinic, Aviation Communications Ltd., Mr. Errol Kellyman, NCB (Cayman) Ltd and Murray & Westerborg and is scheduled to be an annual event on the local track and field calendar.

The raffle for the autographed Manny Pacquiao gloves was made by George Town Principal Mrs. Martin and was won by Mr. Boris Brady.