Clarkes notch wins at German meet
LEIPZIG, Germany (CMC) — The unrelated Clarkes — Lerone and Lacena Golding — earned a pair of wins for Jamaica at the Erdgas Athletics Meeting on Saturday.
Clarke produced a notable performance in a tense men’s 60 metres final, and Golding-Clarke also prevailed in a close finish in the women’s 60m hurdles.
A 28-year-old Jamaican, Clarke and Mark Jelks of the United disputed the lead in adjoining lanes over the first 40 metres, but the Caribbean sprinter had the strongest finish, clocking a personal best and meet record of 6.55 seconds.
Clarke’s time was 0.02 secs faster than his time over the same distance at a meet in Stuttgart a week ago.
A month before the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Doha, Clarke has clearly established himself as a strong medal contender for Jamaica, and has the joint fifth-fastest time in the World this year.
Overall the women’s events were weaker than those of the men’s in Leipzigs’s Arena, but Golding-Clarke stumped hometown girl Carolyn Nytra to win the 60m hurdles.
In front of a crowd of 3,113, the 34-year-old Golding-Clarke clocked 7.98 secs to finish 0.01 secs ahead of Nytra.
Shareefa Lloyd, another Jamaican, finished in the medals, when he placed third in the women’s 400m in a time of 53.40 secs.
Zuzana Hejnova of the Czech Republic clocked 53.23 secs in the event, and Denisa Rosolova also of the Czech Republic was second in 53.38.
World leading performance from American Terrence Trammell and Malte Mohr of Germany, along with a very good showing in the shot putt from Christian Cantwell of the United States produced the highlights of the meet.
Trammell stormed to 7.43 secs in the 60m hurdles, and Mohr showed that German pole vaulting is still World-class with a clearance of 5.83 metres.
Cantwell, the reigning outdoor and indoor World champion, propelled the shot putt 21.26m.