On Saturday 27th May, Coach Antonia Burton and two (2) Track and Field Student-Athletes, Matthew Graham and Umar Sandy journeyed to Grenada to participate in the Whitsuntide International Games which was held at the Kirani James Athletic Stadium. 

The Whitsuntide Games is an International Invitational Track & Field event held annually in Grenada. This year the games attracted 45 clubs and over 900 athletes from various countries. Ideally, Coach Burton would have liked to take more student-athletes to Grenada but due to financial constraints, she decided on taking only two. 

The contingent was scheduled to depart on Friday 26th May, but due to flight delays it meant that they would now be leaving on Saturday morning to compete in the events Saturday afternoon. They were up against it. Matthew was selected to represent the UTT Patriots in the 100m and 200m sprint events while Umar would represent the Patriots in the Discus throw event. 

Matthew was first up and won his 100m heat in 10.96 seconds, beating five (5) other competitors and qualifying for the finals. This time of 10.96 seconds was a Personal Best time for Mathew lowering the 10.98 seconds he did earlier in the year. 

While Matthew sat and waited for the 100m Finals, Umar prepared to throw the discus against 26 other competitors in the field. Umar was as calm as possible and according to Coach Burton “too calm for my liking”. However, when the dust settled and all throwers had given their best effort on the day, none could compare to UTT Patriots Bachelor in Energy Engineering student, Umar Sandy who stood tall placing 1st against competitors from countries far and wide. 

The 100m Finals was called and Matthew walked confidently to await the starter’s instructions. He ran his heart out and finished a commendable 4th place with a huge Personal Best time of 10.76 seconds. This meant that Matthew lowered his Personal Best time by .22 seconds – what an achievement to this Year 4 Bachelor in Kinesiology student.

Matthew was not done yet and on Sunday, he again ran a Personal Best time, this time in the 200m heats. His time of 21.76 seconds surpassed all times he previously produced in this event. Patriot Matthew Graham did three (3) Personal Best times in two days, wow! Coach Burton would later reveal that she would not allow him to run the final of the 200m because he had taken his body to places never gone before and it would be a huge injury risk to have him run. 

Let us congratulate Coach Antonia Burton, Matthew Graham and Umar Sandy on their sterling performances in Grenada over the weekend. UTT was well represented.