Jamaica Scorpions captain John Campbell says he is in a good place ahead of the resumption of the West Indies Championship on Wednesday.
Campbell’s Scorpions are currently last in the standings after two rounds, with 8.8 points, and will take on the Windward Islands Volcanoes at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Tarouba from May 18-21.
The West Indies Test opener will go into round three coming off some good form in the recently concluded Dream 11 Jamaica T10 tournament where he finished as the leading run-scorer, with 302 runs in 11 matches, while captaining the Middlesex United Stars to a third-place finish.
The short turnaround between formats could pose a challenge to adapt for some batsmen but Campbell insists it’s the nature of the modern game.
“In this day and age there’s a lot of cricket being played so the waiting period between formats is, oftentimes, very slim,” said Campbell in a press conference on Monday, ahead of Wednesday’s game.
“We had an opportunity to play a three-day game before we left Jamaica and I’ve had numerous net sessions with coach Coley that were centred around the longer form of the game. I’m in a good place right now,” he added.
When asked what role he could play with the bat to help turn the Scorpions’ season around, Campbell had this to say.
“For me, It’s good starts. As an opener, setting the foundation for the rest of the innings is very important and we need big totals to win games.”
Jhaniele Fowler’s West Coast Fever defeated the Sunshine Coast Lightning 74-65 at the USC Stadium in Queensland in round nine of the Suncorp Super League on Sunday thanks to a perfect 66 goals from 66 attempts from the Jamaican goal shooter.
Fowler’s Fever now has seven wins from nine games to lead the eight-team table with 28 points
Jamaican goal shooter Shimona Nelson was on fire to help the Collingwood Magpies secure a 71-67 win over the Queensland Firebirds at the MyState Bank Arena in Tasmania.
Nelson scored 65 goals from 66 attempts to help the Magpies move to sixth in the table with 16 points from nine matches.
Goal defence Lattanya Wilson and goalkeeper Shamera Sterling each snatched three rebounds but they weren’t enough to prevent their Adelaide Thunderbirds from going down 40-54 to the New South Wales Swifts at the Ken Rosewall Arena.
The Thunderbirds are now seventh in the table with 12 points from nine games.
Kemba Nelson took the 100/200m sprint double at the PAC 12 Conference Championships held at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon on Sunday.
Julien Alfred, Demisha Roswell and Johnathan Jones pulled off impressive victories as the Big 12 Conference Championships concluded in Lubbock, Texas on Sunday.
The Seattle Sounders claimed a vital win to kick-start their MLS season, springing to life in the second half to defeat Minnesota United 3-1 at home.
Goals from Raul Ruidiaz, Nico Lodeiro and Cristian Roldan handed the Sounders a critical three points, after winning two of their opening eight games in the league.
Despite the majority of possession in the opening 45 minutes, they went into the interval down 1-0 after Robin Lod scored in the 34th minute.
The recent CONCACAF Champions League winners were then awarded a penalty which Raul Ruidiaz converted in the 50th minute and they snatched the lead with a long-range blast from Cristian Roldan in the 74th.
Lodeiro sealed the victory for the Sounders in fourth minute of stoppage time, getting on the end of Roldan's incisive cross.
Following wins for the Colorado Rapids and Houston Dynamo, the Sounders needed the three points and remain five points from the Western Conference's last playoff spot in 11th.
After a back-and-forth contest where both sides had the lead, meanwhile, Atlanta United and the New England Revolution drew 2-2 in Sunday's MLS action.
It was Atlanta who jumped ahead early through Thiago Almada's terrific strike from outside the box 15 minutes in, before Adam Buksa equalised for New England 15 minutes later from a tough angle.
Buksa put New England in front with his second goal, coming 10 minutes into the second half, but it would be short-lived as Atlanta's Luiz Araujo equalised eight minutes later, tying things up in the 63rd minute.
There would be another pair of golden chances down the stretch, as Buksa blew his chance at a hat trick in the 83rd minute as he missed from inside the six-yard box, before Araujo missed almost an identical chance down the other end less than a minute later.
The action-packed spectacle featured a combined 40 shots, with Atlanta the more hard-done-by of the two sides, finishing with 26 shots to New England's 14, and 1.81 expected goals to New England's 1.12.
With the draw, Atlanta held on to seventh place in the Eastern Conference, while New England is down in 11th.
President of the St Lucia Athletics Association Cornelius Breen said the residents of the island are proud of young sprinter Julien Alfred, who set yet another national record at the Big 12 Conference Outdoor Championships in Lubbock, Texas on Saturday, May 14.
The 20-year-old Alfred, a sophomore at the University of Texas, won her preliminary round heat in 10.81, the fastest time in the NCAA this season and the second fastest time this year. Only Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce with the 10.67 she clocked in Nairobi, Kenya, on May 7 has run faster.
The time also puts Alfred in an elite group of the top-10 fastest women from the Caribbean over 100m. Only Elaine Thompson-Herah (10.54), Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (10.60), Merlene Ottey (10.74)., Kerron Stewart (10.75), Veronica Campbell-Brown (10.76) and Shericka Jackson (10.76) have, as Caribbean women, run faster than Alfred.
“Today (Sunday) was a wonderful day for us in St Lucia, having received news that Julien’s performance has made her the second fastest in the world. This was no easy feat. Julien has shown that she has the potential to develop, has the potential to do great things. It is on this premise, that she was scouted by her club, Survivors and Mr Cuthbert Modest, who saw the potential and assisted in that development and today we are witnessing what she has accomplished,” Breen told Sportsmax. TV.
“It is indeed a proud moment for us. We, as a nation, are happy about such a performance. We look forward to her continued development and her continued progress in the sport of track and field.”
He remained hopeful that Alfred would be able to deliver similar performances at the major championships.
“The World Championship is on the horizon, the Commonwealth Games and even the Olympics, and we continue to be proud of her,” he said.
Alfred will be favoured to win the final set for later Sunday despite being lined up in a stacked field that includes University of Texas teammates Kevona Davis, who ran a lifetime best 10.95 in the preliminary round, Kynnedy Flannel, as well as the speedy Rosemary Chukwuma from Texas Tech.
After running a personal best of 1:45.89 to claim the South Eastern Conference (SEC) title at the conference championships at the University of Missouri on Saturday, Mississippi State’s Navasky Anderson said he is just getting started on his way to becoming the best ever 800m runner from Jamaica.
The time, the 14th fastest in the world this year is the fastest by a Jamaican and is just over half a second shy of Seymour Newman’s national record of 1:45.21 set back in 1977.
The former St Jago athlete held off Sam Whitmarsh of Texas A&M and Georgia’s Claymore Pender, who each ran personal best times of 1:46.09 and 1:46.71 for second and third, respectively in the race where the top-six all produced lifetime best performances.
However, for Anderson, a junior at Mississippi State, this is where his quest to go beyond Newman’s 45-year-old record begins.
“My job here is just now getting started,” he told Sportsmax.TV on Sunday.
“My goal is not only to be the best 800m that passes through Jamaica but also to bring the awareness and the spotlight to the younger generation letting them know that we can be dominant in the 800m as well.
“I will stay humble and work, my times will speak for themselves in due time.”
The 21-year-old Anderson has had to put in the work over the past few years to get to this point where he is within touching distance of the long-standing national record that only a few other Jamaicans like Clive Terrelonge (1:45.44), Mario Watson (1:45.58) and Alex Morgan (1:45.58) have got close to.
“To be great in the 800m there has to be a constant shift in mechanism, being able to run a fast 400m or 200m repeats today and being to hit a steady 10 miles the next morning,” said Anderson who stands at a wiry 1.93m (6’ 4”).
“Not everyone has the same body type or is built the way I am. I stay fit with morning runs and coordinate with my strength coach to get workouts that are going to help me move forward at least two to three times weekly.”
The journey to this point has been difficult but he has never given up hope nor lost sight of his goals as an athlete even when things were not going according to plan while he was at St Jago.
“I started high school running the 400m and the 1500m, taking on the 1500m at champs for my first two years. I made the finals both years but it was constant downhill after that,” he said, explaining that he believes “It was just not my time. I was training to the best of my ability but I wasn’t able to compete at a high level at Champs.”
Notwithstanding those early disappointments, Anderson never gave up and his fortunes began to change when he moved on to Essex County College in the United States.
“I stayed motivated and worked with Coach Andrew Kidd, who helped me develop a strong endurance background. I then went to Coach Lionel Leech at Essex County College. From 1:57-mid, coach got me down to 1:52-low is less than two years,” he said.
“I then made a great decision to attend Mississippi State, the right 800m university where Coach Chris Woods worked tirelessly to get my time down from 1:52 to 1:45 and still in progress in less than two years. That is spectacular.”
He said he has no plans to rest on his ‘spectacular’ progress with his goal now clearly in sight.
“I’ll keep working and I’ll keep working,” he concluded.
Retired Jamaican Olympian Veronica Campbell-Brown has announced that she and her husband, Omar, are expecting a second child. This, as she celebrated her 40th birthday on Sunday.
Her first child, Avianna, was born on February 23, 2019.
“Four decades! I am grateful to celebrate another milestone with hubby and Avianna as we excitedly anticipate the arrival of baby number two,” she said on Instagram.
“Today is the beginning of another year if abundant blessings.”
After a glittering career during which she won 49 medals in international competition including Olympic titles in the 200m in Athens in 2004 and in Beijing in 2008as well as a 100m world title in 2007, Campbell-Brown announced her retirement in June 2021, just prior to the start of the Jamaican National Athletics Championships at select a team to the Tokyo Olympics.
FC Dallas placed themselves in the race for top spot in the Western Conference, defeating Los Angeles Galaxy 3-1 in the MLS on Saturday.
Three goals in the opening 23 minutes, including a brace from Jesus Ferreira, set the Toros up for a critical three points after slip-ups from both Austin FC and Los Angeles FC.
Douglas Costa's well-taken free-kick in the 67th minute proved to be mere consolation, as the Galaxy failed to break Dallas down and force their way back into the contest.
Dallas now sit second in the West, a point off LAFC, who conceded two penalties in the opening 30 minutes to lose 2-0 to Colorado Rapids.
With the win, the Toros were able to go past Galaxy and Austin, who let slip a 1-0 lead at half-time following Daniel Pereira's red card to lose 2-1 to Real Salt Lake.
There were goals galore elsewhere in the West, with Portland Timbers giving Sporting KC a 7-2 trouncing while Houston Dynamo defeated Nashville SC 2-0. The Vancouver Whitecaps and SJ Earthquakes played out a 3-3 draw.
Elsewhere, Philadelphia Union's 1-1 draw with New York RB has made for up a three-way tie atop the Eastern Conference.
Daniel Gazdag put the Union ahead after some neat combination with Sergio Santos at the top of the penalty area in the 47th minute, but Luquinhas managed to restore parity with his goal in the 66th minute.
They are joined at the top of the East following respective wins for CF Montreal and Orlando City over Charlotte and Toronto FC.
New York City were able to make up ground with their 2-0 win over Columbus Crew and Cincinnati beat Chicago Fire 2-1, while Inter Miami and DC United played out a 2-2 draw.
Jamaica Scorpions coach Andre Coley would like to see batsmen taking more responsibility at the crease, and place more emphasis on batting time, as the West Indies Championship resumes next week.
With two rounds already in the books for the shortened season, the Scorpions will have plenty of work to obtain a satisfactory finish. On the back of some lukewarm performances, the Jamaica franchise finds itself at the foot of the six-team standings having earned just 8.8 points they have so far.
In that regard, the team has added two batsmen, in West Indies batsman Brandon King and wicketkeeper Aldane Thomas who it is hoped will provide the team with added impetus heading into next Wednesday’s fixtures against the Windward Islands in Trinidad & Tobago. Coley, however, also believes a change of attitude will be needed to turn things around.
“We are not just looking or starts but to transfer and to translate that into bigger scores, into bigger team partnerships and actually spending time (at the crease),” Coley told members of the media on Friday.
“We are a team that if you look at our record or even the first two games, our run rate has always been healthy. We just now have to bat time and accept personal responsibility, from a batting standpoint and build more significant partnerships.”
2020 Olympic 100m bronze medallist Shericka Jackson is pleased with her performance in her season-opening 200m race, at the Doha Diamond League, at the Suhaim bin Hamad Stadium on Friday.
Jackson, also a global medalist in the 400m at the 2015 and 2019 World Championships and the 2016 Olympics, ran 22.07 to finish second behind American Olympic medalist Gabby Thomas who ran a meet record 21.98 for victory. British 2019 World Champion Dina Asher-Smith was third in 22.37.
“I’m definitely happy,” said Jackson after the race.
“I just ran 22.07 so I’m super excited, healthy and looking forward to the rest of the season,” she added.
It was a windy day at the track, but Jackson says it didn’t affect her race plan.
“My focus was to run the curve as hard as I could and I did that and I’m just happy. The wind never affected me,” she said.
Jackson’s next appearance will come in the Women’s 100m at the Muller Birmingham Diamond League on May 21st.
“Next week I have the Birmingham Diamond League so I’m just taking it one race at a time,” she said.
Reigning Olympic champions Hansle Parchment and Elaine Thompson-Herah were among winners at Thursday’s Puerto Rico International Classic in Ponce.
Parchment sped to a season’s best mark 13.15 for victory in the Men’s 110m hurdles ahead of the USA's current world leader Devon Allen (13.20) and Jamal Britt (13.30).
The Women’s 100m hurdles was won by the USA’s Alaysha Johnson in 12.50 ahead of Puerto Rican Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn (12.52) and Jamaican 2015 World champion Danielle Williams (12.67).
Double Olympic sprint champion Thompson-Herah cruised to victory in the Women’s 100m in 10.93 ahead of Trinidad & Tobago’s Michelle Lee-Ahye (11.06) and the USA’s Shania Collins (11.08).
Bahamian reigning Olympic and World 400m champion Steven Gardiner won the Men’s 300m in 31.52 ahead of the USA’s Vernon Norwood (31.81) and Jamaica’s Nathon Allen (32.04).
2011 World and 2012 Olympic 400m champion Kirani James of Grenada was victorious in the Men’s one-lap event in a season’s best 44.70 ahead of Jamaica’s Sean Bailey (45.42) and the USA’s Trevor Stewart (45.50).
Jamaica’s Junelle Bromfield was third in the Women’s equivalent in 51.82 behind Americans Gabby Scott (51.42) and Olympic 800m champion Athing Mu (50.42).
Moving to the 400m hurdles, Jamaica’s Janieve Russell ran a season’s best 54.09 to win ahead of teammates Shiann Salmon (54.43) and Rushell Clayton (54.90).
In the field, Jamal Wilson of the Bahamas was victorious in the Men’s high jump with 2.22m ahead of the USA’s Jeron Robinson (2.17m) and Puerto Rico’s Luis Castro Rivera (2.17m).
Legendary West Indies batsman Viv Richards is confident Nicholas Pooran was the right choice for captain of the One Day International squad and has backed the player to do well in the position.
Pooran was named as the replacement for all-rounder Kieron Pollard last week, following the latter’s surprise decision to retire from international cricket a few weeks ago. The decision to appoint the 25-year-old by the Cricket West Indies (CWI) panel of selectors hardly came as a surprise as the players was already being groomed for the position.
Pooran, who had served as Pollard’s vice-captain over the last year, took charge of the team for a series against India earlier this year. For Richards who himself captained the team between 1980 and 1991, the choice was an obvious one.
“There wasn’t any other choice in my opinion. I think the young man is pretty studious about what he wants to get done. He takes his cricket pretty studiously and I am a fan of Nicholas Pooran,” Richards told the Antigua Observer.
The Master Blaster believes the player has come a long way since making his debut for the team in 2016 and has now blossomed into the role.
“Early in his career I guess there was some immaturity … but having been through the mill and where he’s at now, I think he is the perfect choice as captain.”
After running a massive personal best 60m time indoors and starting her outdoor season with a couple of 400m races, Tokyo Olympics 100m bronze medallist Shericka Jackson has confirmed that she is leaning towards the 100/200m double again this season.
Jackson, 27, a World Championships and Olympics 400m bronze medallist experienced a successful step down to the blue ribbon sprint last season, running personal bests of 10.76 and 21.81 in the 100m and 200m, respectively. The times, along with her 49.47 personal best in the 400m, have made her the second best active combination sprinter and fifth all-time.
Only Marita Koch, Marion Jones, Florence Griffith-Joyner, who no longer compete and Bahamian wonder girl Shaunae Miller-Uibo rank ahead of her.
Jackson missed out on a possible Olympic medal in the 200m in Tokyo last year when she mistimed her run during the preliminary round and failed to advance. However, she will have a second crack at a global 200m medal at the World Championships in Oregon this summer, should all go well at the National Championships in Kingston next month.
“I am definitely doubling this year,” Jackson said after running 11-flat in her first 100m final this season at the JAAA/SDF Jubilee meet last weekend. The time was run into a headwind of -1.8m/s, which makes her time about 10.87 without the influence of the wind.
“I think coach and I will lean more to the 1-2 than the 400 but we will see come trials.”
Jackson, who will be competing against a stacked 200m field that includes Tokyo Olympic bronze medallist Gabby Thomas and British star Dina Asher-Smith at the Doha Diamond League meeting on Friday, believes running a personal best indoors has helped her become a better sprinter.
“It has helped me good. I am coming from a 7.31 to a 7004, it was a really good accomplishment and I am healthy and I’m ready,” she said.
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