Ahye on fire in Texas
Trinidad and Tobago’s Deon Lendore maintained his position at the top of the 2014 men’s 400 metres world indoor performance list when he scorched the Randal Tyson Track Center track in 45.47 seconds, in Arkansas, USA, yesterday, to strike gold at the Razorback Team Invitational.
The Texas A&M University student’s clocking was 27-hundredths of a second faster than the 45.74 run he had produced one week earlier to move into top spot on the 2014 list.
In yesterday’s race, 21-year-old Lendore was pushed by Arman Hall, the American finishing second in 45.63. Another T&T/Texas A&M athlete, Carlyle Roudette finished fourth in the same section and 10th overall in 46.96.
Lendore’s new world lead is his fourth fastest indoor time. Last February, the 2012 Olympic 4x400m bronze medallist produced a superb 45.15 seconds run--a national record and the fastest time in the world in 2013. With the clocking, he moved into 10th spot on the all-time world indoor 400m performance list.
Last year, Lendore also clocked 45.23 seconds and 45.36 in the indoor 400.
Lendore’s teammate at Texas A&M, Wayne Davis II finished first in heat two and second overall in the men’s 60m hurdles preliminaries. The 22-year-old T&T hurdler got to the line in 7.84 seconds. However, in the final, Davis cramped and did not finish the race.
And in the women’s 200m, Janeil Bellille was ninth overall, the T&T/Texas A&M athlete returning a time of 23.97 seconds.
Michelle-Lee Ahye was on fire at the Howie Ryan Invitational, in Houston, Texas, yesterday, the T&T sprinter finishing second in the women’s 60m dash in a personal best 7.15 seconds--just two-hundredths of a second outside the 7.13 national record established by Kelly-Ann Baptiste in 2008.
Ahye is now second on the 2014 indoor performance list, behind Ivory Coast sprint star Murielle Ahoure, the woman who beat her to the line in yesterday’s final. Ahoure got home in a blistering 7.03 seconds--a new meet record and the fastest time in the world this year, improving on the 7.05 run she had produced in Houston on January 17.
In the opening round, Ahye won heat four in 7.31 seconds. She then topped the second semi-final in 7.18, a new personal record (PR) and the fastest time in the penultimate round. That PR did not last long, the 21-year-old athlete improving by three-hundredths of a second in the championship race.
T&T’s Kyron Blaise bagged bronze in the men’s long jump with a 7.28 metres leap.
And in the men’s 60m final, T&T’s 2008 Olympic 100m silver medallist Richard “Torpedo” Thompson finished fifth in 6.69 seconds. American Mike Rodgers topped the field in 6.54.
Thompson was seventh overall in the semis in 6.75 seconds. Blaise clocked 6.97 for 20th spot, and did not advance to the final. Thompson had clocked 6.84 seconds to top his preliminary round heat, advancing eighth fastest to the semis, while Blaise was 20th overall in 6.94.