JAMAICA picked up four medals on Sunday's final day of the Junior Pan Am Championships in Miramar, Florida with thrower, Ashinia Miller leading the way after picking up gold and a National Junior record in the Boy's Shot Put. The team picked up one gold and three silver medals to end the Championships with 10 overall medals which included three gold, five silver and two bronze to finish second overall. The United States, with 59 medals including 26 gold, 21 silver and 12 bronze, topped the three day Championships. Bahamas finished third and Brazil closed out the top four with 11 medals which included three gold, one silver and seven bronze.

It was a much better performance from the Jamaicans on Sunday’s final day of competition as  Miller, who  broke his  own National Junior record of 19.47 metres done at the Carifta Games in April, won the event with a throw of 19.97 metres.  The United States had to settle for silver and bronze as Kyle McKelvey (18.39m) and Caleb Whitener (18.29m) finished second and third respectively.  It was indeed a great Championship for the young Jamaican throwers following Traves Smikle’s gold and Fredrick Dacres bronze in the Discus on Friday's opening day.  Miller had high praises for his high school coach, Julian Robinson - "I am happy for the win and national junior record but I am kind of disappointed that I did not get the Championships record. I also would like to thank my coach at Calabar who has motivated me a lot ", said Miller. 

Jamaica started the day on a positive note as in the first final, former Wolmer's Girls' athlete, Danielle Dowie picked up silver in the Girl's 400 metres hurdles. Dowie, despite going into the final with the fastest time had to settle for second in 58.55 seconds as the Bahamas’ Katrina Seymour, who recently won bronze in the event at the Senior CAC Championships in Puerto Rico, finished stronger than her to pick up the gold in a winning time of 57.87 seconds.  Deborah Rodriquez of Uruguay finished third for the bronze in 59.10 seconds.  "It has been a long season for me, competing indoors and outdoors and I am happy that the season has come to an end as I was determined to do better than I did two years ago when I got bronze in the event", said Dowie. 

It was also a personal best and silver medal for Janieve Russell in the Girl's heptathlon as, despite suffering a back spasm midway through the competition; she was still able to tally 5352 points for her second place finish behind Brazil’s Tamara Souza.  Souza won the event with 5477 points while the bronze medal went to the United States’ Deonn Latham with 5273 points.  Russell showed her fighting quality in the final event, the 800 metres, as after tying on points with the United States athlete and despite the pains from her injury, was very courageous as she held on for the win in 2:24.23 seconds sealing her second place overall finish.  “I am kind of disappointed that I did not win because I fell down in the long jump and the javelin, but this is good anyway seeing that I was doing the event for the first time", said the multi talented athlete.

The 4x100 metres relay quartet of Danielle Williams, Celia Whyte, Natasha Morrison and Carlene Copeland picked up silver in the Girl's event.   They finished second in 45.35 seconds while the Bahamas, with a good anchor leg from 200 metres champion Anthonique Strachan, won the gold in 45.04 seconds and Canada took third in 45.37 seconds.  The Boy's 4 x 400 metres relay quartet of Everton Clarke, Lashanda Bromfield, Odain Todd and Yannick Hart had to settle for fourth in 40.72 seconds as the United States won in 39.43 seconds, with Canada taking the silver in 39.97 and the Bahamas finishing third in 40.26 seconds.

In the Girl's and  Boy's 4 x 400 metres Jamaica finished fourth in both events as the teams had lost some strength due to injuries to key members. In the Girl's event, 400 metres champion Chris Ann Gordon, who had suffered an injury to her hamstring was replaced by Dezreen Montague.  The Jamaican team clocked 3:46.78 as the United States took gold in 3:34.71 with Canada getting silver in 3:38.99 and The Bahamas taking the bronze in 3:42.61.  In the Boy's event, the quartet of Rusheen McDonald, Everton Clarke, Rojeek Rochester and Javier Bell clocked 3:16.73 as the United States won their third relay gold of the Championship, clocking 3:08.20 for the gold with Trinidad finishing second in 3:13.27 and Bahamas picking up bronze for finishing third in 3:14.96.

Contributed by Raymond Graham