Reigning NCAA Indoor 60m champions Julien Alfred and Terrence Jones produced excellent performances to win their respective Women’s and Men’s college 100m sections at the Tom Jones Memorial Invitational at the Percy Beard Track in Gainesville, Florida on Saturday.
The St. Lucian Texas senior Alfred continued her stellar form this season with 10.72 (2.4m/s) to win the Women’s College 100m ahead of Texas Tech’s Rosemary Chukwuma (10.85) and Ole Miss’s McKenzie Long (10.92).
The Commonwealth Games 100m silver medallist also ran a new personal best and St. Lucian national record 21.91 to win the 200m on Friday.
The Women’s Olympic Development section saw Jamaican Kiara Grant produce a personal best 10.99 for victory ahead of Adidas’ Celia Barnes (11.05) and Maia McCoy (11.08).
Jones, the Bahamian Texas Tech junior, produced a massive personal best and world leading 9.91 to win the Men’s College 100m.
Jones, 20, won comfortably ahead of Texas Tech teammate Courtney Lindsey (10.04) and Florida State’s Amir Willis (10.08).
Jones’ 9.91 equals Derrick Atkins’ Bahamian national record done to win 100m silver at the 2007 World Championships in Osaka, Japan.
The Men’s Olympic Development section was won by American 200m World Champion Noah Lyles in 9.95 ahead of Asics’s Joseph Fahnbulleh (9.98) and Adidas’ Kendal Williams (10.03).
Jamaican Sachin Dennis was fifth in 10.11 while the BVI’s Rikkoi Brathwaite and Trinidad & Tobago’s Eric Harrison ran 10.16 and 10.18, respectively, to finish sixth and seventh overall.
Moving to the one lap event, Trinidadian 2022 World Indoor 400m champion Jereem Richards and Jamaican Stacey-Ann Williams both produced personal bests to secure wins.
Adidas’ Richards, who also won 200m gold at the Commonwealth Games last year, produced an impressive 44.68 to win the Men’s Olympic Development 400m ahead of Alonzo Russell of the Bahamas, who also ran a personal best 44.73, and Adidas’ Noah Williams (45.22).
Elite Performance’s Williams, whose previous personal best was 50.14 done in 2021, ran 50.12 in just her second race of the season for the win ahead of Life Speed and Guyana’s Aliyah Abrams (50.77) and Adidas’ Brittany Brown (51.15).
Smith produces season’s best to win long jump at Texas Invitational
Texas junior Ackelia Smith produced an NCAA leading performance to take top spot on day one of the Texas Invitational at the Mike A. Myers Stadium on Friday.
The 22-year-old reigning NCAA champion produced a season’s best 7.10m, her first jump over 7m this season, to win ahead of Trinidadian Puma athlete Tyra Gittens (6.72m) and UTSA’s Ida Breigan (6.65m).
This is a welcome return to form for Smith who suffered a torn hamstring at the NCAA Indoor Championships in early March.
Smith was Jamaica’s national champion in the long jump in 2022 and was a finalist in both the long and triple jump at that year’s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
Paulino extends 400m winning streak to seven in Shanghai
Dom Rep’s Marileidy Paulino followed up her triumph at the season’s Diamond League opener in Xiamen last week with another victory at the Shanghai Diamond League on Saturday.
The reigning World champion produced 50.89 to win ahead of American Talitha Diggs who ran 51.77 and Bajan two-time World Championship bronze medallist Sada Williams who ran 52.00 in third.
Paulino’s winning streak in the 400m has now stretched to seven races.
It was déjà vu in the women’s 100m hurdles as reigning Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho Quinn just pipped World Indoor 60m hurdles champion and world record holder Devynne Charlton on the line, just as it played out in Xiamen last week.
Camacho-Quinn ran 12.63 compered to Charlton’s 12.64. Two-time World champion Danielle Williams was third in 12.74.
The men’s 110m hurdles saw American Daniel Roberts get his second win in a row to kick off the Diamond League season. His winning time was 13.12, comfortably ahead of Japan’s Shunsuke Izumiya (13.23) and Olympic champion Hansle Parchment’s season’s best 13.26.
Edwin Allen second in Champions of America girls’ 4x800m as Union Catholic sets National Record
Edwin Allen had to settle for second position in the Championships of America high school girls’ 4x800m, as they were soundly beaten by New Jersey-based favourites Union Catholic in the final on day two of the 128th Penn Relays at the Franklin Field in Philadelphia on Friday.
Not only did Union Catholic defend their title, but the team of Jimmiea King, Peyton Hollis, Sophia Thompson, and Paige Sheppard did so in emphatic fashion, clocking a National Record of 8:41.20. They lowered the previous mark of 8:43.12 set in 2008 by Roosevelt.
Edwin Allen’s quartet of Tanesia Gardiner, Monique Stewart, Kevongaye Fowler, and Rickeisha Simms, gave a credible effort in second at 8:50.76, while Virginia-based South Lakes (8:50.8), were third.
The other Jamaican schools, Holmwood Technical (8:58.94) and Alphansus Davis (9:13.83), placed fifth and ninth respectively.
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