Jamaica’s Ryan Brown won the long jump competition with an 8.04m leap at the USATF Showcase in Prairie View, Texas on Sunday. He was among several Jamaicans who made it to the podium.

Omar McLeod ran the second-fastest time in the world this year to win the 110m hurdles at the FDK Games in the Netherlands where Sifan Hassan, running before her countrymen and women, broke the 10,000 world record.

Elaine Thompson-Herah won both the 100 and 200m at the inaugural NACAC New Life Invitational in Miramar, Florida, on Saturday.

Despite once again re-writing the record books, Jamaica sprint queen Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce admits she was not expecting to clock such a fast time.

On Saturday, at the JAAA Destiny Series, in Kingston, Fraser-Pryce ran the fastest women’s 100m time since Florence Griffith-Joyner set the world record 33 years ago. 

The multiple-times Olympic and world champion stopped the clock at 10.63, moving her second on the list of the fastest times in history.  The time, which obliterated her previous national record of 10.70, is only bettered by Griffith-Joyner’s 10.49.

“I was just making sure that I had a good run before the National Championships, because I don’t have any more races before that.  I was just looking forward to putting in a solid race,” Fraser-Pryce said following the event.

“I was focused on getting my technique and everything together ahead of the national championship.  So, in terms of the 10.6, I really wasn’t expecting it to be honest and maybe that was a good thing,” she added.

Heading into her final Olympics, Fraser-Pryce had insisted that she would prioritise running fast times, having already won several gold medals.  The race was the athlete’s fourth over the distance this season, having opened with a fourth-place finish at the Diamond League meet in Gateshead.  In Doha last week, she recorded the then 3^rd fastest 100m time this season after crossing the line first in 10.83.

Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce recorded the second-fastest time ever clocked over the women's 100m, after registering a blistering 10.63 to destroy the field at the JAAA Olympic Destiny Series, at the National Stadium on Saturday.

The mark, which was registered in a 1.3 legal wind reading, obliterated the country’s previous national record of 10.70 that she previously shared with compatriot Elaine Thompson-Herah. 

The run also moved the athlete up the world fastest list, sitting her second behind the United States’ Florence Griffith Joyner who still holds the record 10.49, which was set in 1988.  Another US athlete, Carmelita Jeter, has now dropped to third on the all-time list with her time of 10.65.

The race was only the athlete’s third 100m of the season, after opening with a fourth-place finish in Gateshead, followed by a win in Doha, where she ran the then third fastest time this season (10.84), in a pair of Diamond League events. 

Earlier this week, the athlete had claimed that prioritising fast times would be the aim this season, for what will be her final Olympic Games this summer.

Natasha Morrison, who recorded her personal best earlier this season (10.87), was second behind Fraser-Pryce with a time of 10.95, with Kashieka Cameron third with 11.39.

Briana Rollins-McNeal, the 2016 Rio Olympics 100m hurdles champion has been banned for five years by the Disciplinary Tribunal of the Athletics Integrity Unit starting August 15, 2020, for tampering with the results management process.

It was the second violation for the 2013 World Champion, having been banned for a year in 2016 by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) after missing three drugs tests - two of them after she forgot to update her whereabouts details when she was attending a fete of honour in her hometown and travelling to the White House to meet the President Barack Obama.

However, the athlete has filed an appeal before the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS), which has stayed the sanction until they have heard her case. CAS will hear the full case and make a ruling before the start of this summer’s Olympic Games in Tokyo on July 23.

This will allow her to compete at the USA Olympic trials which end on June 27. Should CAS uphold the ban, Rollins-McNeal, 29, will be banned until August 2024, which means she would also miss the Olympic Games in Paris, France.

American Trayvon Bromell will square off against Jamaican Yohan Blake in the men’s 100 metres dash at the inaugural North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletics Association (NACAC) New Life Invitational.

Reigning double Olympic sprint champion Elaine Thompson-Herah headlines a large field of world-class athletes down to compete at the inaugural North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletics Association (NACAC) New Life Invitational this Saturday at the Ansin Sports Complex in Miramar, Florida.

Briana Williams’ four races over two days last weekend was a test, one that she passed with flying colours notwithstanding a minor slip of along the way.

On Sunday, Briana Williams promised she would break her one-day-old U20 record today and she delivered with a brand new personal best to win the 100m at the Duval County Challenge in Jacksonville, Florida earlier tonight.

Williams, 19, who set a new national U20 record of 11.01 on Sunday, clocked a new personal best of 10.98, despite a poor start to record her second win in as many days.

Mikiah Brisco finished second in 11.09 with Dezerea Bryant finishing third in 11.14.

Williams had given a hint of what to expect in the preliminary round when she ran 10.97 to win her heat. However, the trailing wind of 2.5m/s prevented that time from being recognized as the Jamaican national U20 record.

In the final, the wind was only 1.0 m/s well below the allowable limit of 2.0m/s.

Earlier, Yohan Blake was second in the 100m clocking 10.09s as he trailed the USA’s Ronnie Baker across the line. The American clocked 9.99.

Marvin Bracy-William was third in 10.11.

Williams wasn’t the only Jamaican with a new personal best Monday night, as promising sprint hurdler Britanny Anderson clocked 12.59 to win the 100m hurdles. It was almost a duplicate of the 12.58 lifetime best she ran in the preliminary round, except for the poor start in the final where she defeated Christina Clemons, who clocked 12.64 for second place narrowly edging 2015 World Champion Danielle Williams who ran 12.65 for third.

Earlier, Javon Francis won his 400m race in 45.84. Quintaveon Poole was second in 45.87 and Myles Pringle third in 46.11.

The BVI’s Ashley Kelly won her 400m in 54.86 over Belize’s Samantha Dirks 55.01 and Canada's Carline Muir 55.48.

Shamier Little won the 400m hurdles in a world-leading 53.12 beating Jamaica’s Ronda Whyte, who ran a season-best 54.33 for the runner-up spot. Her compatriot Shiann Salmon, also ran a personal best of 54.97 for third.

Trinidad and Tobago’s Machel Cedenio and Ruebin Walters were winners at the 2021 Pure Summer Invitational held at the National Training Centre in Clermont, Florida on Sunday.

Briana Williams established a new national U20 100m record in Florida earlier today and said she plans to run faster tomorrow when she lines up against faster sprinters English Gardener, Veronica Campbell-Brown and Tynia Gaither at the Duval County Challenge in Jacksonville.

The 19-year-old Williams, who set a national U20 record when she ran 11.02 in New Mexico in June 2019, clocked 11.01 at the JAC Summer Open, running at what she said was about 95 per cent effort, as she was saving herself for Monday’s races.

If ratified, the time run with a trailing wind of 1.4m/s would eclipse her previous mark from 2019.

A fast time was always on the cards as in the preliminary round, the 2018 World U20 100m champion, cruised to a comfortable victory in 11.19.

“The first, the preliminary, was good; just working on my start, how low I am coming out of my drive phase, and then most importantly, high knees, don’t break form and just run to the line,” she said of her first run since she ran 11.09 and 11.15 at the Miramar South Florida Invitational on May 9.

She revealed that she was still not all out at her 11.01 run as this was the ‘semi-final’ before Monday’s races at Hodges Stadium in North Florida.

“I didn’t want to go all out, that’s for tomorrow. I was about 95 per cent,” she said. “Glad to have run 11.01 not trying too much but giving enough to where I could set a national junior record and it felt great. My form was great. I liked it.”

She said she was expecting tough competition on Monday but she wants to go out get a new personal best and finish healthy.

2018 Jamaica national 100m champion, Tyquendo Tracey, is hoping a return home will fuel a return to top form, with the Olympic Games fast approaching on the horizon.

After a spell abroad with the Florida-based Reider Sports Performance Group, under the tutelage of head coach Rana Reider, Tracey moved back home earlier this year.  The athlete is now with the SWEPT Track Club which is overseen by Okeile Stewart.

The former Garvey Maceo High student had spent 6 years at local track club MVP prior to that but left in 2018 after a financial dispute.

On Saturday, at the JAAA Destiny Series, the athlete suffered a bit of misfortune after false starting but later clocked 10.15 in the 100m.

“I’m just looking to do the best I can do.  Honestly, right now things have been a little tricky because I recently made a serious change, and right now, I could say it’s a bit of an experiment,” Tracey said.

“Training wise it's going great, things are going good, things are really looking up and I’m really looking forward to the national trials,” he added.

The athlete admitted that he had encountered issues during his time in Florida and was happy to be back home.

“I was having a lot of issues with the previous coach, long story but I had to come home.”

Olympic 400m bronze medallist, Shericka Jackson, has admitted that it has been difficult to recover from recent setbacks but insists these days she is in a better place and in better form with the Tokyo Games just a couple of months away.

The quarter-miler certainly looked in good form on Saturday, at the second week of the JAAA Destiny Series, as she clocked a new personal best of 11.02 in the 100m, just a whisker away from breaking the 11-second barrier.

Considering that the 100m sprint is not her preferred event and the last time she attempted the distance, which was at the JAAA Qualification Trials, in March, she ended with a cramp, Jackson was delighted with the result.  The athlete’s previous best of 11.13 was recorded in 2018.

“I think at some point I lost who I was, so I had to take a step back and now I’m back.  The day that I got a cramp I almost gave up, because coming off some shin fractures from 2019 and then I came back and got a cramp, so it messed up my mind a little,” Jackson said following Saturday’s event.

“I have good people in my corner, so I’m back here and I’m happy,” she added.

“The last time I ran a competitive 100m was 2018 so to be back here and get a personal best is really exciting for me.”

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce clocked a season-best 10.84 to record her first win over 100m at the Diamond League meeting in Doha today.