Two bronze for Jamaica on Day Two of NACAC Champs
JAMAICA added two more medals, both bronze, on yesterday’s second day of the NACAC Senior Championships at the national stadium in San Jose, Costa Rica.
Ricardo Chambers and Bobby-Gaye Wilkins-Gooden were both third in the men’s and women’s 400m finals as Jamaica took its tally to three medals after triple jumper Shanieka Thomas won her event on Friday’s opening day of the three-day championships.
Chambers, who was disqualified in the 400m at the JAAA National Senior Championships in late June, might have forced his way onto the relay team after he ran 45.37 seconds for third place.
Trinidad and Tobago’s Lalonde Gordon won the gold medal in 44.89 seconds followed by Costa Rica’s Nery Brenes who took silver in 45.22 seconds. The top three men all went under the old record of 45.52 seconds set by Calvin Smith of the USA in 2007 when the championships were first held in El Salvador.
Wilkins-Gooden clocked 52.45s to finish behind two Americans, Courtney Okolo (51.57s) and Kala Funderburk (52.22s). Both Americans dipped under the previous record of 52.23s set by Debbie Dunn of the USA.
Tyler Mason ran personal best 13.32 seconds (1.5m/s) under the old record of 13.35 seconds, but was fourth in the men’s 110m hurdles, while Deuce Carter was seventh in 13.66 seconds.
Trinidad and Tobago’s Mikel Thomas won in 13.23s, followed by Cuba’s Jhoanis Portilla (13.30s) and US Virgin Island’s Eddie Lovett (13.31s).
Despite setting new championships records in Friday’s semi-finals, Jamaica finished out of the medals in both men’s and women’s 100m.
Jason Livermore placed fourth in the men’s 100m final in 10.13 seconds (-0.1m/s), the same time given to third place Levi Cadogan of Barbados.
Remontay McClain of the USA won with 10.09 seconds, beating another Barbadian, Ramon Gittens (10.11 seconds).
Sheldon Mitchell, who had set the new record of 10.07 seconds in the semi-finals on Friday, finished seventh in 10.31 seconds.
Samantha Henry-Robinson’s 11.01 seconds (1.4m/s) set on Friday will stand as the new record after she had the fastest wind-legal time in the semi-finals, beating 11.32 set by Mechelle Lewis of the USA.
Yesterday, she finished fifth in 11.45 seconds (-0.1m/s) as Americans Barbara Pierre (11.12 seconds) and Charonda Williams (11.21 seconds) took the gold and the silver medals, respectively. Trinidad’s Michelle-Lee Ahye won the bronze in 11.22 seconds.
Daina Levy was fourth in the women’s hammer throw event with a best of 68.60m, while Natalie Grant was seventh with 56.82m, fouling her last three tries.
Jamaicans accounted for two other new records set on Friday, while equalling one. Shanieka Thomas set a new championships record of 14.23m as she won the women’s triple jump event and qualified for the World Championships.
Her jump beat the 13.22m set by American Tiombe Hurd in 2007 when the meet was first held in El Salvador.
Rasheed Dwyer’s 20.17 seconds (0.8m/s) equalled the men’s 200m record set by Jordan Vaden of the USA.
Several other Jamaicans will be seeking to secure their places on the Jamaican team to the IAAF World Championships on today’s final day of competition, which will see Jamaicans taking part in 10 of the 15 finals scheduled including both 4x400m relays.
Commonwealth Games champion Dwyer, the second-fastest man in the 200m in the world so far this year behind American Justin Gatlin, will seek to make up for his silver medal in the Pan-American Games when he competes in the 200m finals.
He will go in with the fastest time, with St Kitts-Nevis’s Antoine Adams expected to be his biggest threat for the gold.
Kerron Stewart and Jodean Williams will go in search of medals in the women’s 200m in a strong field led by Trinidad’s Semoy Hackett, who set a new record 22.59 seconds in Friday’s preliminaries.
Stewart had the third-best time of 23.13 seconds, while Williams had run 23.30 seconds.
IAAF World Junior Championships finalists Javarn Gallimore will contest the men’s 400m hurdles final that will see Javier Culson of Puerto Rico and Felix Sanchez of the Dominican Republic.
Samantha Elliott will line up in the women’s section after she ran 57.32 seconds in the first round on Friday.
NCAA Division Two champion and national record holder Caniggia Raynor will take part in the men’s hammer throw after placing seventh in the discus on Friday.
Raymond Brown and Ashinia Miller will both need to get to at least 20.45m in the men’s shot put if they are book their places on the flight to Beijing.
Miller comes in with a season’s best 19.84m, while Brown is at 19.49m.
Kimarra McDonald led the qualifiers in the women’s 800m from Friday, and has her third chance since the trials in June to get to the 2 minutes 01.00 seconds qualifying time if she is to join Natoya Goule and Semoya Campbell on the Jamaican team in China.
Ricardo Cunningham will be targeting 1 minute 46.00 seconds in the men’s 800m.