MICHELLE-LEE Ahye broke the national women’s 100-metre record on her way to the title, while Emmanuel Callender won his first national 100m title at the NGC/Sagicor Open Championships at the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Mucurapo, yesterday.
It was a showdown between Ahye and former national record holder Kelly Ann Baptiste in the women’s 100m final which carried more star power and allure than the men’s counterpart. It was a close race between Ahye and Baptiste with the latter getting the better start. But Ahye caught her older rival with about 70m to go and powered to the finish line with ease in 10.82 seconds to break Baptiste’s national record of 10.84. Baptiste clocked 10.88 to take the silver while Khalifa St Fort earned the bronze in a new national junior record of 11.06.
Semoy Hackett just missed the World Championships standard of 11.26 finishing fourth in 11.27. After the victory, Ahye said, “I feel really great. I am just going to go back to training do what I was doing and get ready for London (World Championships).” Ahye said it was not the plan to make the World Championships standard in the preliminaries, saying she just ran her race and it worked out like that. In the semifinal round of the women’s 100m Ahye easily won semifinal one in 11.09. She made the World standard of 11.26 on Friday evening when she won her preliminary race in 11.15.
Callender, now 33 years old, won his first national title with a time of 10.10. Keston Bledman of Simplex was second in 10.15 and Rondell Sorillo of La Brea took bronze also in 10.15. Missing from the men’s 100m event this year was national record holder Richard Thompson.
Callender was consistent throughout the rounds, making the World standard of 10.12 in the preliminaries before clocking 10.11 in the semifinals.
After the win, the veteran sprinter said, “I just want to give God thanks for coming out here. I stayed healthy and showed people and the youths as well no matter what people say you could come out here, trust God and still perform at the highest level – without drugs most important thing.” In the women’s 400m finals, Domonique Williams of Abilene won gold in 52.74. Williams was in control of the race after 100m and maintained her lead for the remainder of the race. She struggled in the final 20m but had enough to hang on for the win. Unfortunately Williams did not make the World standard of 52.10. Winning silver was Chelsi Ann Charles of Simplex in 54.46 and Rae-Ann Serville of Memphis Pioneers earned bronze in 54.69.
In the men’s 400m finals it was a star-studded line up with Machel Cedenio (Simplex), Lalonde Gordon (Unattached), Jarrin Solomon (Memphis Pioneers) and Renny Quow (Zenith) all featuring.
Cedenio, the national record holder, was out quickly after 100m while Jacob St Clair was staying in contention for a medal. When the runners approached the final bend, it was a showdown between Cedenio and Gordon with Quow and Solomon trailing. Cedenio held on to win gold in 44.90, followed by Gordon in 45.27, Quow in 45.71 and Solomon in 46.09. St Clair was fifth in 46.13. Cedenio and Gordon both made the World standard of 45.50.
In the only preliminary race of the men’s 400m hurdles, World 2013 champion Jehue Gordon of Memphis Pioneers was not convincing finishing fourth in 52.09.
The athletes in the event were battling for lane assignments as there was only one semifinal as some athletes failed to start. Eric Alejandro of Puerto Rico qualified for the final with the fastest time of 49.85, ahead of Kern Alexis of Memphis Pioneers (50.21) and Juander Santos of Dominican Republic (51.81).
The final will take place today. Action resumes today from 3 pm.
OTHER RESULTS:
Men’s 1500m Finals
1 Tallan James – Grenada – 4:06.16
2 Mark London – Zenith – 4:06.81
3 Jonathan Antoine – Speed Factory – 4:12.01
Men’s Shot Put Finals
1 Hezekiel Romeo – Rebirth – 18.19m
2 Shevorne Worrell – UTT Fast Track – 16.73m
3 Josh Hazzard – Grenada – 16.09m
Women’s Javelin Finals
1 Chuntal Mohan – UTT Fast Track – 43.60m
2 Talena Murray – Zenith – 41.30m
3 Gwendolyn Smith – Palo Seco – 39.57m
Women’s Discus Finals
1 La Toya Gilding – Striders – 42.83m
2 Chelsea James – Falcons -42.73m
3 Portious Warren – Toco Tafac – 41.19m