COMMONWEALTH Games 400-metre hurdles gold medallist Kaliese Spencer and Rusheen McDonald were the highlights of Meet Three in the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA) All-Comers Development series.

The athletes, who both hail from the MVP camp, turned in contrasting performances to win their respective 400-metre events in cool evening conditions at the National Stadium on Saturday.

Spencer lined up in lane four in section two of the women’s event, where she was expected to be challenged by the University of Technology (UTech) pair of Shericka Jackson and the in-form Janieve Russell.

But, the 28-year-old Spencer, after pacing with the field for the first half of the race, showed her class and opened up a huge gap coming off the final curve to win easily in a moderate time of 51.14 seconds. Anastasia Le-Roy of Sprintec, who won her section in 51.92 seconds, placed second overall, while Jackson (52.06sec) and Russell (52.41sec) were third and fourth, respectively.

McDonald then lined up in lane four in section one of the Men’s event, which also included Calabar’s 15-year-old prodigy Christopher Taylor, Warren Weir and Riker Hylton. The race was tightly bunched coming off the final curve with Weir, Hylton and Taylor on the inside battling for supremacy, but McDonald with his usual late burst of speed stormed through to win in a fast 45.84 seconds.

Leford Green of Cameron Blazers finished second overall with a time of 46.18 seconds, with Demish Gaye (46.43sec) of GC Foster College claiming third. National record holder Jermaine Gonzales, making a long awaited return, was 12th overall despite winning his section in 47.39 seconds.

Meanwhile, Twayne Crooks of Kingston College won the junior event in 46.91 seconds, ahead of Devaughn Ellington (48.50sec) of Petersfield and Leon Clarke (48.70sec) of St Jago. Shannon Kalawan (57.42sec) of Edwin Allen won the girls’ event followed by the Frome Technical pair of Amoy Mairs (59.79sec) and Kara Sampath (1:04.58).

Christania Williams of UTech clocked a new personal best of 11.11 seconds in a positive wind speed of 1.5 metres per second to win the women’s 100-metre dash, just getting the better of Natasha Morrison (11.13sec) of MVP and Shimmayra Williams (11.50sec) also of UTech. Zharnel Hughes (10.15sec), representing High Performance Centre, won the men’s event in a blanket finish, ahead of Daniel Bailey (10.16sec) of Racers and UTech’s Andrew Fisher (10.26sec).

The boys’ junior event was won by Dejour Russell of Akan in 10.54 seconds ahead of teammate Seanie Selvin (10.56sec) and Akeemo Minott (10.71sec) who ran unattached. Sashalee Forbes (11.63sec) of GC Foster College won the girls’ equivalent, followed by Kimone Shaw (11.67sec) of St Jago and Edwin Allen’s Shellece Clark (11.99sec).

Meagan Simmonds of UTech showed nice form as she sprinted away from the field to easily win the women’s 100-metre hurdles in 13.17 seconds ahead of Jeanine Williams (14.07sec) of IC Wolves and Shantae McDonald (14.48sec) who ran unattached.

Rohan Cole of St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) won the men’s 110-metre event in a flat 14.00 seconds, with Alex Robinson (14.15sec) of Akan and Ackeem Smith (14.19sec) of MVP taking the runners-up spots. The girls’ junior event was won by Edwin Allen’s Patrice Moody (13.71sec) ahead of the Manchester High pair of Sidney Marshall (13.81sec) and Daszay Freeman (14.20sec).