Baylor’s Ackera Nugent set a facility record to claim the 60m hurdles title at the Big 12 Championships at the Harry Hoak Track in Iowa on Saturday but it was the Texas Longhorns who stole the show winning their fifth consecutive women’s title and second straight men’s crown.

Nugent, a Sophomore at Baylor clocked a fast 7.91, a facility record, to take the sprint hurdles title ahead of Texas Longhorn Milan Young (8.08). Nugent’s Jamaican compatriot Demisha Roswell, a Junior at Texas Tech claimed the bronze medal in 8.20.

Roswell’s Texas Tech freshman teammate, Vashaun Vascianna, won the men’s title in 7.75. The former St Jago and Kingston College hurdler won his preliminary round heat in 7.70 on Friday.

For the Texas Longhorns, Julien Alfred, Tyra Gittens and Stacey-Ann Williams were all on the podium during the two-day championships.

The Longhorns swept the 400m dash, with Kennedy Simon's diving effort of 51.54 seconds to win her first 400m conference title. Jamaica’s Stacey Ann Williams finished just behind in second at 51.60 seconds, while sophomore Rhasidat Adeleke completed the sweep in third with a time of 52.33.

Texas also enjoyed another sweep in the 200m where St Lucia’s star sprinter Julien Alfred took the title with a time of 22.89 seconds. Kynnedy Flannel was second in 23.02 seconds, while Jamaica’s Kevona Davis finished third in 23.30 seconds.

Alfred was a second-place finisher in the 60m dash, clocking 7.17 seconds, losing by 0.02 to Texas Tech Sophomore Rosemary Chukwuma. Flannel added a third-place finish at 7.30 while Davis added a fifth-place finish at 7.33 seconds.

Trinidad and Tobago’s Tyra Gittens won the silver in the high jump, clearing 1.84m. She was fourth in the long jump competition.

Meanwhile, Baylor’s Women that featured Jamaica’s Kavia Francis would take the 4x400m title in 3:32.77 ahead of Texas Tech (3:35.06) and Oklahoma State (3:36.22).

On August 1, 2021, Britany Anderson lined up in lane seven of the final of the Tokyo Olympics 100m hurdles. Having run 12.40, a personal best and the second-fastest time going into the final, only Jasmine Camacho-Quinn, who set an Olympic record of 12.26 in her semi-final, was faster.

Expectations of a medal were high for the 20-year-old Jamaican but it was not to be. She hit the sixth hurdle, managed to clear the seventh but then stumbled, lost her momentum and with it any chance of a place on the podium and making history as the first woman from the Caribbean to win an Olympic medal in the event.

That honour went to her compatriot, Megan Tapper, who finished third behind world record holder Kendra Harrison of the United States, who won silver and Camacho-Quinn, who created history of her own becoming the first Puerto Rican woman to win an Olympic gold medal.

During a recent sit-down with Sportsmax.TV where she talks about her improvement this season, how her training group and her faith in God, have helped her successfully transition to senior competition, Anderson revealed that running her personal best in the semi-final impacted her in a way that she did not expect.

“My emotions were all over the place. I was crying. I was excited, I was overwhelmed,” she said about what caused her to lose her focus after running her lifetime best in the semi-final.

“In the final, I don’t know what…it was like, something went wrong, not just with the hurdles, but because I was so overwhelmed and it was my first senior games, everything was just all over the place.”

Nevertheless, she said she was not disappointed at the eventual outcome saying that she felt like she had won just to make the finals at the Olympic Games.

It is with that mindset that Anderson has approached the start of the new season wherein the span of three weeks she ran three-lifetime bests in the indoors 60m hurdles. Starting at the Millrose Games on January 29, Anderson, who turned 21 in January, ran a lifetime best of 7.91 to defeat a field that included Kendra Harrison.

Just about a week later, she lowered that time to 7.88 while finishing second to Danielle Williams, who ran a then-personal best 7.83 at the New Balance Grand Prix in New York.

Six days later, at the American Track League Meeting in Louisville, Kentucky, Anderson would go even faster clocking 7.82, the fourth-fastest time in the world. Only Williams (7.75), Harrison (7.81) and Alia Armstrong of the USA (7.81) have been faster.

According to the former Vere and Camperdown athlete, her success this season comes down to the change in mindset bolstered by improving confidence.

“I feel like it was just the mindset that changed from last season to this season. Last season was just something to show me what I could do this season and I bring all of that to this season, worked on what I had to work on in practice and just bring it out there on the track,” she said.

It wasn’t that long ago that Anderson set the World U20 record in the 100m hurdles, 12.71, in July 2019 in Finland. She is the World U18 champion and the silver medallist at the World U20 Championships in Finland in 2018.

Since that time, her transition to the senior ranks has been relatively painless as evidenced by her qualifying for her first Olympic final eight months after she turned 20.

She credits her training partners at Tumbleweed, the training group she joined in 2019, for helping her make the transition to the senior ranks.

“Most parts of it was the people I had around me, like my training partners, they helped me throughout everything, off the track and on the track so the transition from a junior to a senior wasn’t really hard,” she said, adding that having fellow Jamaicans Christopher Taylor, Christania Williams and fellow hurdler Omar McLeod, played their part in helping her make a smooth transition.

Transitioning to the senior ranks comes with its own challenges because before she can conquer the world, she has to first overcome perhaps the deepest pool of talent currently at Jamaica's disposal with the likes of Danielle Williams, Tapper, Ackera Nugent, perhaps Janeek Brown and Yanique Thompson among others. Asked about where she sees herself among Jamaica's world-class hurdlers, Anderson confidently indicated that she knows what she is capable of.

"I know what I can do. I know what I am going to do. At the trials, I know what I am going there for, so I will just let all of that play out in God's way," she said.

As for this year, Anderson is focused on the World Championships in Oregon in July but as it relates to World Indoors next month and the Commonwealth Games, no decision has yet been made. Her agent Mario Bassani said those decisions will be made at a later date and will be as a result of discussions with her coach Rana Reider, whom she describes as a really great coach.

“The lesson I take from him is I can do whatever I can put my mind to,” she said.

So far, that advice seems to be working well for Britany Anderson.

 As Bassani tells it, whichever championships she decides to compete at this year, she will be ready.

Jamaica’s Olympic gold medallist Briana Williams will be made available to represent Jamaica at the 2022 World Indoor Championships in Belgrade from March 18-20.

Texas A&M Junior Charokee Young enters the South Eastern Conference (SEC) Indoor Championships at the Aggies Gilliam Indoor Stadium this weekend in perhaps the form of her life.

The former Hydel High School star, opened the season running 37.33 in the 300m at the Wooo Pig Classic, which ranks her 18^th in collegiate history and then in her first race over 400m, won in 52.00 at the Charlie Thomas Invitational.

She then clocked an impressive 51.24 in the 400m at the Don Kirby Open to win in what the fourth-best time all-time indoors at Texas A&M that established her as the Aggies leading quarter-miler, replacing the outstanding Athing Mu, who went pro before winning gold medals in the 800m at the US trials and the Tokyo Olympics.

Herself a former 800m runner, Young believes her progress this season comes down to building on her success last season when she finished the Texas Tech Invitational with two event titles, winning the 400m at a time of 52.64 and ran the second leg on the 4x400m that won at 3:31.09, the second-fastest 4x400m in the NCAA in 2021 as well as clocking a personal best 400m time of 51.93 at the Charlie Thomas Invitational, the fifth-best performer in Aggie history.

The season culminated with her booking a ticket to Japan for her first Olympics.

“I honestly feel like what drove my improvement this year is just adding to what I had already learned last year. So instead of starting from zero, I started from 50 per cent,” said Young, who is looking beyond the NCAA to don Jamaica's colours in the individual 400m at the World Championships in Oregon in July.

“I am still trying to learn more in trying to improve my races.

“I feel like my experience in Tokyo really motivated me for this year to work hard and just go out and give it my best shot. I am really working hard this year so I wouldn’t be like an alternate, hopefully, I will be able to cement my spot on the team. So I am working hard so I can run faster and hopefully get a better result.”

Wanting to succeed for both school and country can be challenging for collegiate athletes. Navigating indoor and outdoor seasons with each having both regional and national competitions can be physically and mentally taxing.

Young acknowledges that reality but believes she is now better able to find that balance that will allow excelling at both.

“I do agree that the NCAA takes a toll on your body but if you can complete an NCAA circuit, it shouldn’t be a problem to push a couple more months to go to the World Championships. Last year was my first time doing it, so this year I will have an idea what it feels like so I will be way more prepared this year than last year,” she said.

With that in mind, she said, her primary goal this season is to improve each time she steps on the track. It is clear in her mind that if she keeps doing that, then doing well for Texas A&M and Jamaica will be achievable.

“I really don’t have a set time I want to achieve this year, I just hope to keep getting better and better, so my main goal this year is to end with a season-best,” she said.

Elaine Thompson-Herah said she would have loved to have gone under seven seconds in her 60m win in Birmingham on Saturday but she was to open her indoor season on a winning note.

Jamaica’s Reggae Girls defeated Grenada 6-1 to secure their second win from as many starts in Concacaf Women World Cup qualifying action at the Kirani James Stadium on Sunday.

Five-time Olympian and 2003 World 100 champion Kim Collins, in his new role of national sports coach, is planning to identify and develop emerging athletic talent on his island of St Kitts and Nevis that will eventually be competitive on the world stage.

Collins, 45, will have the support of his wife, Paula, who was appointed Athletics Coach by Jonel Powell, the Minister of Sports, Youth and Culture in St Kitts.

“Kim, as we all know, has his own wealth of experience from World Champion to Olympian and has been known to coach and train a number of younger athletes,” Minister Powell told media in St Kitts last week.

“Paula in her own right has lots of experience and is a certified coach and has been able to assist not just in athletics but others in terms of non-traditional areas, for example, nutrition and other forms of training.”

The celebrated retired athlete told Sportsmax.TV that among his immediate plans is unearthing the island’s best talents that will eventually be able to compete with the world’s best.

“With this new position, what my wife and I aim to accomplish is to go into the schools and observe primary school children, to see who is talented. We want to make sure the kids are doing the right events and that they love what they do,” he explained.

The plans are similar for those athletes at the secondary school level.

“Transitioning into the high schools, we want to see who will be able to go to the Carifta Games, those who can go to Division I universities overseas and then onto national athletes who will represent the federation in the various meets across the region as well as upcoming Pan American Games, World Championships and so on,” he said.

“So we are looking forward to making sure we can compete once again with the rest of the world and show them that St Kitts and Nevis can once again be great.”

For more than two decades, Collins was mainly the sole individual competitor for St Kitts and Nevis at the 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2016 Olympic Games. He won the World 100m title in 2003 in Paris becoming the first and only athlete from his country to win a world 100m title.

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Shashalee Forbes and Ackeem Blake won their respective 60m races at the first meet in the JAAA/SDF Jubilee at Kingston’s National Stadium on Saturday.

Forbes, 25, the 2017 World University Games 100m champion, clocked a time of 7.16 running into a negligible wind of 0.2 m/s to edge Anthonique Strachan (7.17). Tokyo Olympics gold medallist Natasha Morrison finished third in 7.27.

Blake, meanwhile, clocked a decent 6.61 to defeat Kishane Thompson, who ran 6.67, the same time as Michael Campbell, who is making his way back from a horrific injury to his spine in a motor vehicle accident in late 2017.

In a battle between Olympic bronze medallists over 200m, Tiffany James got the better of Candace McLeod. James ran 23.85 to claim victory over McLeod who ran 24.06. Michae Harriott finished third in 25.17.

Zandrion Barnes won the men’s 400m in 45.99, well clear of Malik James King who ran a pedestrian 46.67 while Terry Thomas was third in 46.99.

In the field, the Julian Robinson-coached pair of Shadae Lawrence and Traves Smikle won the women and men’s discus competitions, respectively.

Lawrence, who made her first Olympic final in Tokyo last year, threw 62.56m to comfortably win her event ahead of Samantha Hall, who had a best throw of 55.65m. Cedricka Williams threw 53.38 for third.

Meanwhile, Smikle, her Reckless Control training partner uncorked a throw of 64.65m for victory over Chad Wright, who mustered 58.02m for second place. Moses Parkinson managed 46.80m for third.

Tissanna Hickling won the long jump with a decent effort of 6.43m. Jodian Stewart was second with her best jump of 6.31m.

It wasn’t the start she hoped for but Elaine Thompson-Herah was still better than the field as she raced to a season-best 7.08 at the World Indoor Tour Gold Meeting in Birmingham on Saturday.

The athlete dubbed the fastest woman alive lived up to the name as after a poor start that saw her trailing Switzerland’s Mujinga Kambundji, Thompson-Herah turned on the after-burners and stormed through the field to win over the Swiss, who ran a season-best 7.11 for second place.

Third was the vastly improved Daryll Neita, who crossed the line in a lifetime best 7.13.

Thompson-Herah’s winning time put her 0.01 ahead of Briana Williams as the fastest Jamaican woman over 60m this year.

Despite a 100-run fourth-wicket partnership between Nicholas Pooran and Rovman Powell, the West Indies lost the second T20 International against India by eight runs at Eden Gardens on Friday. The loss means India takes an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.

The Windward Islands Volcanoes are staring down the barrel of defeat after they were bundled out for 98 in response to Trinidad and Tobago’s first innings score of 326. Following on the Windwards were in trouble again at 32-3 at stumps.

Alick Athanaze was the only scorer of note with 33 as Anderson Phillip (4-32), Jayden Seales (3-31) did the damage for Trinidad and Tobago.

Phillip has so far taken 2-15 as the Windwards struggled once again in their second turn at bat.

Earlier, Trinidad and Tobago resumed at 217-5 with Joshua Da Silva on 51 and Terrence Hinds on five. The pair would eventually post 72 for the sixth wicket when Da Silva was dismissed for 73. Hinds would go on to make 57 as Trinidad were eventually dismissed for 326.

Sherman Lewis was the best of the Windwards bowlers with 5-43.

However, when they went to bat the Volcanoes imploded as other than Athanaze, Devon Smith (16) was the only other top-order batter in double figures. Among the lower order Ryan John (16), Larry Edward (13) and Kenneth Dember (10) were the only other batters in double figures.

Kraigg Brathwaite scored an unbeaten century and Raymon Reifer took six wickets to lead a Barbados Pride fightback against the Jamaica Scorpions on day two of their West Indies Championships match at Kensington Oval.

Man of the Match Sunil Narine scored the fastest 50 in BPL history on Wednesday to propel Comilla Victorians to a seven-wicket victory over Chattogram Challengers and a place in the finals of the tournament where they will face Fortune Barishal.

Omar McLeod is now a member of the Olympic training group run by Petros Kyprianou and based at the Episcopal School in Jacksonville, Florida. Last week McLeod, 27, who was a part of the Tumbleweed group since 2019, told athletes in the group that he was leaving.

However, the 2016 Olympic 110m hurdles champion gave no indication of why he had decided to leave or where he intended to go. His agent Mario Bassani declined to shed any light on the move which apparently took many by surprise.

As it turns out, the 2017 World Champion did not move too far away as Kyprianou shed light on his destination with a post on social media on Monday.

“Welcome to the group Omar @_warrior_child_!. Very excited to take this journey with you! Very thankful to @episcopaleagles for helping create this Olympic training group. What a great place to work at…”

Kyprianou joined the coaching staff at the University of Georgia in 2008 as an assistant coach, eventually becoming head coach in 2015. During his time there he won several awards while leading UGA to 11 top-four NCAA finishes in the last five seasons.

In 2017, he was named Women Outdoor Coach of the Year. In 2018, he won the NCAA Indoor Women’s title as well as the Men’s Outdoor title, which resulted in him winning the awards of Women’s Indoor Coach of the Year and the Men’s Outdoor Coach of the Year.

However, despite his success there, reports emerged in May 2021 that Kyprianou planned to leave Georgia when his contract expired in June that year.

The Athens Banner-Herald reported that in 2020, he turned down a multi-year extension offered by then-athletic director Greg McGarity and instead took a one-year extension.

In September, News4Jax reported that Kyprianou had joined the coaching staff at the Episcopal School of Jacksonville as the director of sports performance, a rare position in high school athletics.

 Among the athletes he coached at UGA were Olympic champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo, USA triple jump champion, Kenturah Orji and Jamaican Olympian Chanice Porter.

He has also coached the likes of British heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson, St Lucia’s Levern Spencer, Maicel Uibo, Lynna Irby and rising sprinter/long jumper Matthew Boling.

Forty-eight hours after Andre Fletcher scored an unbeaten 101 to get Khulna Tigers into the playoffs of the Bangladesh Premier League, his unbeaten 80 was not enough to prevent them from getting knocked out, as they lost by seven runs to Chattogram Challengers.

Needing 16 from the final over bowled by Mehidy Hasan Miraz in pursuit of 190, Khulna Tigers only managed to eight runs. Miraz bowled a yorker-filled over that yielded a boundary by Fletcher and four singles before taking the wicket of Thisara Perera for three with the last ball of the match.

The Grenadian, who hit six fours and four sixes in his 58-ball knock that threatened to lead his side to another remarkable victory, got support from Mushfiqur Rahim, who scored 43 from 29 balls. Together they put on 64 for the third wicket that took the score from 43-2 after Mahedi Hasan and Soumya Sarkar were dismissed for, two and one, respectively.

Fletcher and Yasir Ali then put together a stand of 65 for the fourth wicket. Yasir hit two fours and four sixes in his 24-ball 45 that took Khulna Tigers within touching distance of the target with nine balls remaining.

Miraz finished with 2-40.

Earlier, it was Chadwick Walton’s unbeaten 89 that helped Chattogram Challengers to their score of 189-5.

The Jamaican hit seven fours and seven sixes in his 44-ball knock that rescued Chattogram Challengers from a precarious 65-4 in the 10^th over. Other useful contributions came from Walton’s compatriot Kennar Lewis, who opened the batting with an uncharacteristically sedate 39 from 32 balls.

Miraz scored 36 from 30 late in the innings that helped Walton take Chattogram Challengers to their winning score.