News Releases

Mona is King

For Release Upon Receipt - May 29, 2009

St. Augustine


It’s official! Mona is King of UWI Games 2009, reclaiming the title that they have won in six of the last seven biennial Games. Neither St Augustine nor Cave Hill could dethrone the reigning champions, whose final count of 102 points bested Cave Hill’s total of 80, and dwarfed St Augustine’s 56-point tally. The Games culminated this evening in a formal Closing Ceremony held at the Office of the Campus Principal at 7:00 p.m. At the Ceremony, UWI Games 2009 Host Campus St Augustine ceremonially handed over the UWI Games flag to the Cave Hill campus, who will host the games in 2011.

Yesterday, the decades-old battle for UWI Games supremacy converged on the Larry Gomes Stadium, Arima, where Mona secured their 15th outright victory in the 44-year history of the Games, capturing the Top Female Team, Top Male Team, Top Technical Team and Victrix Ludorum (Tanice Barnett) awards in a full day of track and field events. Cave Hill’s athletes could only muster 195.5 points and St Augustine’s efforts yielded a mere 149, leaving Mona with a massive total of 266.5 points.

From May 21st to 28th, over the course of UWI Games 2009, more than 400 athletes from the three campuses competed in track and field, football, netball, cricket, volleyball, basketball, 6-a-side hockey, swimming, table tennis and lawn tennis. Apart from Track and Field, Mona copped top honours in Tennis, Swimming, Netball, Women’s Basketball, Women’s Football and Women’s Volleyball, although Cave Hill held their own in the Men’s and Women’s Hockey, Men’s Basketball and Men’s Volleyball, and St Augustine walked away with Table Tennis and Men’s Football.

Mona trounced her sister campuses in the Women’s Volleyball championship, taking first place and claiming the prizes for Best Setter, Best Blocker, Best Spiker, Best Defender, Top Technical Team and MVP (Zalika Paul). St Augustine’s Jeanne Rose Rene and Jenelle Marshall claimed the Best Server and Best Receiver respectively.

Host Campus St. Augustine found sure footing in the Table Tennis championships, where four-time national women’s table tennis champ, Verna Edwards coached national junior player Priya Ramcharan, her sister Nirveeta Ramcharan, Garfield Gay and captain Kellon Roach to a 5-2 victory over their Mona rivals. The St Augustine team would go on to take first place in the Championship.

Today, however, the final day of UWI Games 2009 belonged to Cave Hill, whose cricketers scored 137 for 5 to defeat St Augustine in an exciting one-day at the UWI Sport and Physical Education Centre (SPEC). On the SPEC indoor court, Cave Hill dominated Mona in the men’s basketball game, as evidenced by a final score of 84 to 43. The outcome was the same for the St Augustine netballers, who fell 41-24 to the opponents from Cave Hill. A change of venue brought no better luck for St Augustine in Men’s Hockey, as Cave Hill again beat St Augustine convincingly (3-1), this time at the Eastern Regional Sport Complex in Tacarigua. The St Augustine ladies fared slightly better against their Mona opponents in hockey, breaking even at two goals apiece, but could not prevail over the women in football, falling 1-0 to evenly matched opponents from Mona. (A full breakdown of final results is enclosed below.)

UWI Games 2009 kicked off on Thursday 21st May with a festive Opening Ceremony at which UWI honoured Jai Jebodhsingh, Victor Cowan and Winford ‘Fred’ Green, who were the collective driving force responsible for ensuring that the UWI Games continued when it was threatened by financial difficulties in 1975.

The Games are part of the University’s ongoing preparations for the upcoming inaugural Caribbean Games, which are carded to take place in Trinidad from July 12th to 19th. Over 1300 athletes from across the Caribbean will gather for this significant regional event, which is the very first of its kind.

To download the official UWI Games 2009 Calendar and view the official scores, visit www.sta.uwi.edu/uwigames2009.

 

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