Tokyo 2020 Recap: Gold for Parchment - McLeod, McPherson run personal bests to lead five Caribbean women to 400m final
Women’s 400 Metres
Five Caribbean women advanced to the final.
Marileidy Paulino of The Dominican Republic won semi-final 1 in a national record of 49.38 to advance.
Jamaica’s Candice McLeod and Cuba’s Roxana Gomez also progressed from semi-final 1.
McLeod ran a personal best of 49.51 to finish second and advance automatically while Gomez finished third in a personal best 49.71 and advanced in a fastest loser spot.
Shaunae Miller-Uibo advanced by running 49.60 to win the second semi-final.
Jamaica’s Roniesha McGregor and Guyana’s Aliyah Abrams were also in semi-final 2 but failed to advance, finishing third in 50.34 and seventh in 51.46 respectively.
Stephenie Ann McPherson won semi-final 3 in a personal best 49.34 to qualify.
Sada Williams finished third in that race in a national record of 50.11 but that wasn’t enough to get her into the final.
Men’s 200 Metres
Canadian Andre DeGrasse ran a Canadian record 19.62 to take gold.
DeGrasse, silver medalist behind Usain Bolt at the 2016 Rio games, will be joined on the podium by Americans Kenny Bednarek and Noah Lyles.
Bednarek ran a personal best 19.68 for silver and Lyles ran a season’s best 19.74 for bronze.
Jamaica’s Rasheed Dwyer finished 7th in 20.21 and Jereem Richards of Trinidad & Tobago finished 8th in 20.39.
Women’s High Jump
St. Lucian Levern Spencer finished 22nd in qualifying.
Women’s 4x100 Metres Relay
The Jamaican team consisting of Briana Williams, Natasha Morrison, Remona Burchell and Shericka Jackson ran 42.15 to finish third in heat 1 and advance to the final.
Men’s 4x100 Metres Relay
Jamaica qualified for the final after running the fastest time in the heats.
The team of Jevaughn Minzie, Julian Forte, Yohan Blake and Oblique Seville ran a time of 37.82 to win heat 1.
Trinidad & Tobago were also in heat 1 and finished 6th with a time of 38.63.
Their team consisted of Kion Benjamin, Eric Harrison, Akanni Hislop and Richard Thompson, silver medalist from the 2008 Beijing games.
Men’s 110 Metres Hurdles
Jamaica secured two medals in the final of the men’s 110 metres hurdles.
Hansle Parchment, a bronze medalist at the 2012 London Olympics, ran a season’s best of 13.04 to win gold ahead of the prohibitive favourite, Grant Holloway of the USA, who took silver in 13.09.
Ronald Levy ran 13.10 for bronze, his first Olympic medal.
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Olympic medallist Rajindra Campbell breaks own Jamaican shot-put record in Zagreb
Jamaican shot putter Rajindra Campbell made more history at the Ivan Ivancic Memorial in Zagreb on Saturday.
The 28-year-old, who became the first Jamaican to medal in a throws event at the Olympic Games with his bronze medal in Paris, established a new national record of 22.31m to finish third at Saturday’s meet behind American Olympic and World champion and world record holder Ryan Crouser who threw a meet record 22.93m to win and Payton Otterdahl who threw 22.46m in second.
Campbell opened his competition with 21.05m before going down to 20.61m in the second round.
He then signaled his intent for a big throw with 21.56m in round three before unleashing his national record-breaking throw in round four.
He fouled his next two attempts which didn’t matter as no one else was able to eclipse his mark.
Campbell broke his own previous national record 22.22m done in Madrid last year.
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St Lucia, St Maarten, Grenada, Haiti register contrasting League B wins
St Lucia, St Maarten, Grenada, and Haiti all opened their 2024/25 Concacaf Nations League accounts with victories in League B on Friday.
Grenada blanked St Martin 2-0, and St Lucia edged Curacao 2-1 in the Group B double-header at Kirani James Athletics Stadium.
Over in Group C, Haiti were 4-1 winners over Puerto Rico, and St Maarten blanked Aruba 2-0 at Estadio Centroamericano in Puerto Rico.
St Lucia vs. Curaçao
In what was the first-ever Nations League encounter between the two nations, St Lucia were the better team on the day.
Arkell Jude-Boyd broke the deadlock for St Lucia in the 24th when he fended off a defender on his way to poking an effort through the legs of Eloy Room in goal for Curacao to make it 1-0 at the break.
Jude-Boyd went close to extending the lead in the second half, but Room came up big for Curacao on that occasion.
However, St Lucia inevitably doubled the lead in the 55th through Caniggia Elva, who finished off a loose ball.
Curacao pulled one back in the 63rd when Joshua Brenet fired home from Leandro Bacuna’s pass.
St Maarten vs. Aruba
St Maarten and Aruba failed to separate themselves for most of the contest, as their respective goalkeepers Tyrell Richardson and Matthew Lentink were in good knick between the sticks.
It wasn’t until the 81st that Gerwin Lake broke the deadlock for St Maarten when he rifled an effort past Lentink, who had no chance at a save on that occasion.
Ronan Olivacce added a second for St Maarten in the 90+3, with an easy tap-in from Chovanie Amatkarijo’s pass.
St Martin vs. Grenada
Grenada were always favoured to secure the three points and that they did.
It took them only five minutes to open the scoring as Lucas Akins capitalised on a defensive error.
The menacing Regan Charles-Cook made the points safe when he tucked home from close range in the 38th minute.
St Martin tried to stay in the contest but found Grenada’s defence and goalkeeper Chad Phillip in defiant mode.
Puerto Rico vs. Haiti
After being relegated from League A, Haiti is intent of getting back to the top and they demonstrated that with a comfortable beating of Puerto Rico.
Interestingly, it was Puerto Rico that struck first in the 29th when Gerald Diaz fired home from a rebound.
Haiti responded with a second half flurry, which was started by Danley Jean Jacques in the 51st.
Frantzdy Pierrot added a second in the 60th, taking his Nations League tally to eight goals, before Don Louicius finished off a tidy team build up in the 76th to put Haiti 3-1 up.
Duckens Nazon then capped the win with an 83rd-minute strike to put Haiti on course for promotion.
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Wasteful Reggae Boyz held to goalless stalemate by 10-man Cuba
It was a bittersweet start to life for Jamaica's new head coach Steve McClaren, as his Reggae Boyz were held to a goalless stalemate by 10-man Cuba in their opening Concacaf Nations League Group B League A encounter at the National Stadium on Friday.
There was an air of optimism surrounding the team, with fans eager to see how the former England manager would transform the Boyz, who were coming off a period of transition.
While the Boyz delivered for the most part in terms of their dominance in all aspects of the game, they failed to please where it mattered most—in the final third—as they squandered numerous chances and, as such, had to settle for a share of the spoils.
In fact, of the 21 shots taken, only seven were on target, and that, plus the fact that they had a numerical advantage after Yunior Perez was sent for an early shower in the 44th minute, underscores the Boyz's woeful presentation in the final third.
The point puts the Boyz and Cuba second behind leaders Honduras, who were 4-0 winners over Trinidad and Tobago in their contest. Only the top two finishers will progress to the quarterfinals.
From the first whistle, Jamaica looked sharper and quicker. McClaren’s tactical adjustments were evident as the Boyz played with a higher intensity, pressing the Cubans into their own half.