Source: www.guardian.co.tt
Story by: Clayton Clarke
Rhonda Watkins leaped to gold in the women’s long jump at the Rafer Johnson/Jackie Joyner Kersee Invitational at Drakes Stadium, California, USA on Saturday. Watkins, 2006 World Junior champion, captured the gold with a distance of 5.99m to begin her 2011 season on a winning note. Kai Selvon notched another victory with her Auburn University relay teammates at the Seminole Invitational at Tallahasee, Florida. Auburn captured the women’s 4x100m in 43.84 seconds. Semoy Hackett impressed at the Littlefield Texas Relays, taking second in the women’s 100m finals in a wind assisted time of 10.98 seconds. Jenoba Tarmoh won the event in 10.94 with a strong tail wind of 2.9m/s. Hackett, of Lousiana State University, qualified for the finals another wind aided mark of 11.12 seconds to finish fifth in the heats on Friday. Hackett and her LSU team-mates copped bronze in the women’s 4x100m in 43.34.
In the heats the LSU quartet was also third (44.44). Janielle Belille (South Plains) also finished runner-up in the women’s 400m hurdles finals clocking 57.50 seconds. Fresh from her personal best of 55.81 seconds set at the Texas Tech Open on April 02, the 2008 World Junior silver medallist, was slower in the finals than the 57.02 she set in topping the heats. Belille and Sparkle McKnight were part of South Plain 4x400m relay line up missed out on a medal, finishing fourth in the finals (3:31:85).
In the heats the team was again fourth (3:36:94). Kryon Blaise and Robert Collingwood were also among the medal winners. Blaise of LSU was third in the men’s triple jump with a wind assisted leap of 16.24 metres. Southern Missouri’s Robert Collingwood was also third in the men’s shot put with a throw of 17.00m which he got on his sixth and final throw. His twin brother Richard was 11th in the discus ( 49.74m). Emmanuel Mayers (Mississippi State) crossed the line in fourth in the men’s 400m hurdles clocking 51.21 seconds. Darnel Greig helped North Texas’s 4x400m team to fourth in 3:09:17. In the men’s 1600m sprint relay Baylor, with Garvyn Nero and Zwede Hewitt in the lineup, finished fifth in 3:18:38.Ashee Smith (Mc Neese State) was 16th in the women’s discus with 30.52 metres.