Jamaica’s Olympic hopefuls Charokee Young and Chrisann Gordon-Powell won their respective 400m races in contrasting fashion at the 2021 LSU Alumni Gold meet at the Bernie Moore Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on Saturday.
Young, a sophomore at Texas A&M, was given the same time of 51.49 as LSU’s Favour Ofili and had to be separated by photo-finish imaging that determined that the Jamaican crossed the finish line in 51.481 to Ofili’s 51.486 with both times rounded up.
The time bettered her 51.52 ran in Texas on April 3.
Natassha McDonald of Alabama finished third in 51.94.
Meanwhile, Gordon-Powell, who is the training partner of Olympic champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo, ran out a comfortable winner clocking 50.84s in the Olympic Development quarter-mile event. It was her fastest-ever opener. Her winning margin was more than a second over Sierra Leone’s Maggie Barrie, who ran 51.92 for second place, and almost two seconds ahead of third-placed Zoe Sherar.
Damion Thomas, the NCAA 60m hurdles champion, had to settle for second place in the 110m hurdles.
He clocked 13.37 in the race won by Alabama’s Robert Dunning in 13.28.
Thomas’ LSU teammate Eric Edwards Jr finished third in 13.46.
Baylor’s Ackera Nugent was third in a season-best 12.87 in the 100m hurdles.
She was beaten by LSU’s Tonea Marshall, who clocked a fast 12.53 for the win while Tara Davis was second in 12.61.
Kevona Davis finished second in the 200m in 23.15, beaten only by her teammate Kynnedy Flannel who stopped the clock in 22.75.
Thelma Davies of LSU clocked 23.29 for third.