The 27-year-old Bahamian, who won silver at the 2022 World Indoor Championships, clocked a season-best 7.87 whole holding off the challenge of Sharika Nelvis of the USA (7.93) and Celeste Mucci of Australia, who ran a personal best of 7.95.
Jamaica’s Danielle Williams ran 7.97 for fourth in the keenly contested battle for the minor place.
Meanwhile, 2022 World Indoor 400m champion Jereem Richards was nipped on the line by Noah Williams of the USA in a tight three-way finish.
The Trinidadian led most of the way but tightened up over the last 50m when Williams jumped at the chance to get past him on the inside to take the race by 0.04s.
Both were given the same time of 45.88. However, on closer inspection, Williams clocked 45.876 to Richards’ 45.880.
Vernon Norwood finished third in 45.92.
Jamaican’s Leah Anderson and Janieve Russell finished second and third, respectively, in the Women’s 500m in which Fembke Bol unleashed a new world’s best performance.
The Dutch athlete, who won silver in the 400m hurdles in Oregon in 2022, demonstrated superior speed and strength to pull away from the field and win in 1:05.63 to become the first woman to run faster than 1:06.00 in the event.
It was a new personal best, national record and world record.
Anderson made a late surge to get by Russell in the final stages to establish a new Jamaican national record of 1:08.34.
Russell, the now two-time Commonwealth Games 400m hurdles champion, faded to third in 1:09.18.
The Women’s 60m dash was billed as a clash between World 200m champion Shericka Jackson of Jamaica and World and Olympic 400m hurdles champion Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone.
Somebody forgot about Aleia Hobbs, who just last week ran 6.98 over 60m, tied for the ninth fastest time ever with Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Elaine Thompson-Herah.
But while both Jackson and McLaughlin-Levrone failed to make the final finishing fifth in the respective heats, Hobbs dominated the field to take the final in 7.02 ahead of training partner Mikiah Brisco, who ran a season best 7.10.
Celera Barnes ran 7.21 for third in the American sweep.
Noah Lyles edged Trayvon Brommel by the smallest of margins to win the men’s event in a personal best 6.51 (6.507). Brommel 6.51 (6.509) took the runner-up spot.
Ghana’s Benjamin Azamati clocked 6.62 for third.
The 2015 World 100m hurdles champion and 2019 bronze medalist is off to a fast start this season, losing just once, a third-place finish in the 60m dash at the Clemson Invitational on February 14.
A week earlier she ran 38.57 to win an indoor 300m at Clemson.
Since then she is 2-0 in finals, winning the 60m hurdles in Karlsruhe, Germany in 7.84 and then just last weekend at the New Balance Grand Prix in New York, Williams ran a new lifetime best of 7.83, the second-fastest time in the world this year.
Only 100m hurdles world-recorder Kendra Harrison with 7.81 has run faster.
She explained to Sportsmax.TV earlier this week that so far this season she has been healthy and happy.
“Last year was a disastrous season and so this year I have had a renewed mindset. I am determined to not have as disastrous a season, I can’t repeat that”, she said from her base in South Carolina.
“Last year I started the season injured, I finished the season injured so I am of the mindset that I have to stay healthy this year. I love competing so I am trying to find the fun in what I am doing once more because I wasn’t having fun last year. So that’s my only desire this year, to stay healthy, to have fun and to compete well.”
This season has been markedly different from 2021 when a raft of injuries hindered her preparation, her ability to compete and played a part in Williams missing out on Jamaica’s Olympic team for the second consecutive cycle. She said it was a difficult time.
“Last year this time I was injured, I had foot problems, I couldn’t run, I had to take a month off,” she said.
“I was down in the dumps for a lot of last year. I lost my confidence.
“I started doubting myself and my ability because I was injured all the time and I wasn’t as strong and it was affecting a lot of things so (this year) I have taken a different approach to the gym, I have taken a different approach to practice, to recovery and I am doing all the little things that I didn’t pay enough attention to and that has led to improvements in a lot of areas on the track but mostly off the track and definitely in my mindset going into practice and into competition.”
The biggest change, she said, is with her physicality.
“The difference this season is that I am healthy and I am stronger, much, much stronger,” she said. “I changed weight programmes so I am more powerful and strong.”
Armed with greater confidence and greater strength, Williams is approaching the full season with greater optimism. She is looking forward to the World Championships in Oregon in the summer and is not ruling out the Commonwealth Games where she won silver on Australia’s Gold Coast in 2018.
“I plan to take it one step at a time. I am definitely targeting trying to go to World Indoors when that is finished we will turn our attention to the outdoor season,” she said. “I am pretty sure World Championships is the main target.”
Regarding the Commonwealth Games, she said, she isn’t sure what Coach Lennox Graham has planned but the Diamond League circuit is also in her plans for the season.
“We are going to try to do as much as we can,” she said.
Jackson, who finished as runner-up in Jamaica’s National Sportswoman of the Year awards last week, had a magnificent 2022 season which saw her 21.45 to become the fastest woman alive in the 200m on her way to winning gold in the event at the World Championships in Eugene.
She also ran a new personal best of 10.71 to finish second in the 100m behind Shelly-Ann Fraser Pryce. Jackson, 28, has a 60m personal best of 7.04 which she ran to finish sixth at the World Indoor Championships in Serbia last year.
The USA’s McLaughlin-Levrone, 23, is also coming off a spectacular year which was crowned with her being named as the World Athletics Female Athlete of the Year in December.
In July, she became the first woman in history to run a sub-51 second 400m hurdles when she ran a sensational 50.68 to win her maiden 400m world title. That was after she broke her own then-world record of 51.46, which she ran to win gold at the Tokyo Olympics, with a 51.41 effort at the US Championships in June. McLaughlin-Levrone has never run a 60m race.
World Championship 100m finalist Aleia Hobbs and World Indoor Championships 60m silver medallist Mikiah Briscoe will also be in the field in Boston.
Richards, a finalist in the 200m at the Tokyo Olympics, opened his season with a spanking new lifetime best of 45.83 that won him the 400m at the New Balance Grand Prix in New York. The time was more than 0.5s faster than his previous indoor best of 46.37 set in January 2017 and has set the tone for what he hopes to be a successful 2022.
Still, it did not come as much of a surprise for the 2018 Commonwealth Games 200m champion.
“I was very excited but not so surprised to finally run under 46 seconds indoor,” he told Sportsmax.TV whole crediting his training partner, who just happens to hold the outdoor world record in the event.
“In the off-season, I trained with Wayde (van Niekerk) and he pushed me beyond my limits. I must say I appreciate him as a training partner.”
2021 was a disappointing year for Richards, who was eighth in the 200m final in Tokyo but he has taken the disappointments in stride and has already put them behind him knowing that he gave it his best shot.
“I didn’t get the results that I would’ve wanted in Tokyo but I know for a fact I gave 100 per cent each and every time I touched the track,” said Richards who intends to defend his Commonwealth title later this year.
“Some years are just better than others, I guess. Each and every season I try my best to be better than I was the year before.”
Despite his progress in the indoor 400m and training with van Niekerk, Richards said there should not be any expectation of him stepping up to the longer sprint.
"I’ve always been more of a speed runner trying to put together a good 400m. I like the 400m but I have always felt comfortable over 200m plus the 400m hurts a lot," he said.
On a more sombre note, Richards’ career-best performance came less than a month after his friend, compatriot and fellow Olympian Deon Lendore perished in a motor vehicle accident in Texas. “Deon bai this one was for you. Love You, Bro,” Richards posted on Instagram after his race on Sunday.
It was the follow up to a previous post on January 11 when he described his late friend as an inspiration.
“You inspired an entire generation of athletes from your collegiate career teaching us to be confident, that anything is possible once you work hard enough.”
He told Sportsmax.TV that his performance in New York was his way of remembering his fallen comrade.
“It was a meaningful performance for me to pay tribute to Deon,” he said. “I was inspired by Deon’s achievements and his warrior spirit and I hope to inspire the younger generation just like he did.”
Richards plans on racing again in Birmingham, England, on February 19.
The 26-year-old looked in imperious form as she hurried from the blocks and hardly seemed to let up, in the end, claiming the event by a comfortable margin. Miller-Uibo stopped the clock at 50.21, well clear of second-place Waldine Jonathas of the United States, who was second in 51.95, and Jessica Beard who finished third in 52.60.
In the less frequently contested men’s 300m, Jamaica’s Christopher Taylor also set a national record but was second behind Jereem Richard who clocked a speedy 32.17. The USA’s Kahmari Montgomery finished third in 32.96.
Jamaica’s Briana Williams clocked 7.22 to qualify for the women’s 60m final but did not face the starter for the final. The event was won by Kayla White in a personal best of 7.15, with Hannah Cunliffe second in 7.17 and Candace Hill third in 7.19.
In the women’s 60m hurdles, Jamaica’s Britany Anderson finished outside of the top three spots, with a time of 7.99. The event was taken by Keri Harrison in a world-leading 7.82, with Tiffany Porter second in 7.89 and Gabrielle Cunningham third in an identical time.
