Julien Alfred, Demisha Roswell and Johnathan Jones pulled off impressive victories as the Big 12 Conference Championships concluded in Lubbock, Texas on Sunday.

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 14^th 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 40^th 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.

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 21^st.

“Next week I have the Birmingham Diamond League so I’m just taking it one race at a time,” she said.

Grenada’s Anderson Peters set a new area record in the javelin with the second of his two first-ever throws over 90m, Shanieka Ricketts won the triple jump but there was a shock defeat for Shaunae Miller-Uibo in the 400m as the 2022 Diamond League season began in Doha on Friday.

Peters, the reigning world champion, broke his own national record on his opening throw of 88.96m but lost the lead when Jakub Vadlejch hurled the javelin out to a new world lead of 89.87m in the fourth round.

Spurred by the challenge, Peters uncorked his first ever 90m throw in the penultimate round, hitting a new personal best of 90.19m only to see Vadlejch surpass him once more with a personal best of 90.88m.

Undaunted the Grenadian, who once wanted to be a sprinter, flung his best-ever throw, 93.07m to put victory beyond Vadlejch’s reach. It was a new national record and personal best for Peters, and the fifth-best throw in history.

Meanwhile, Ricketts, the 2019 World Championships silver medalist produced a winning mark of 14.82m in challenging conditions caused by blustery winds as high as 6.5m/s that aided her winning jump.

Ukraine’s Maryna Bekh-Romanchuck took second place with her best effort of 14.73, her fourth jump of the competition that was helped by a gale force wind of 6.3m/s.

Dominica’s Theo LaFond took the final podium spot with her fourth-round jump of 14.43m assisted by a 3.6m/s wind.

Miller-Uibo last lost a 400m on this track back in 2019 when Bahrain’s Salwa Eid Nasser stunned the world with a 48.14 run at the World Championships. This time it was the Dominican Republic’s Marileidy Paulino, the Tokyo Olympics silver medallist who stormed home in a season-best 51.20.

Stephenie-Ann McPherson trailed the imperious but clearly winded Bahamian up until the last few metres before overtaking her to clock a season-best 51.69. Miller-Uibo trudged across the line in 51.84 for third.

Barbados’ record holder Sada Williams (52.09) and Tokyo Olympic finalist Candice McLeod (52.37) finished fourth and fifth, respectively.

Shericka Jackson, who won the 100m at the National Stadium in Kingston last weekend, lost her first race of the outdoor season clocking 22.07 in the 200m after getting caught late by the USA’s Gabby Thomas, who ran a season-best 21.98 that equalled the meet record set by Allyson Felix back in 2015.

Dina Asher-Smith, the reigning world champion, clocked a smart 22.37 in her 200m opener, which was good enough for third place.

There was a blanket finish in the 100m hurdles that Kendra Harrison won in 12.43 but can count herself lucky to win. Brittany Anderson led off the last hurdle but appeared to stumble and faded to third in 12.44, the same time awarded to Nigeria Tobi Amusan who was awarded second place.

Bahamas’ Devyne Charlton was some distance back running 12.61 for fourth place while Megan Tapper hit the first hurdle and finished eighth in 12.92.

The 400m hurdles offered a glimpse of what to expect in the event this year as Alison Dos Santos, the Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist out-paced silver medallist Rai Benjamin down the home stretch to win in a world-leading 47.24, which was also a new meet record.

Benjamin was timed in 47.49.

The rest of the field was far behind but Thomas Barr of Ireland was the next best running 49.67 for third while Kyron McMaster finished fourth in 49.93.

Jaheel Hyde was fifth in 50.23.

Bahamian Olympic Champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo was handed a rare defeat to begin the 2022 Diamond League season after finishing behind both the Dominica Republic’s Marileidy Paulino and Jamaica’s Stephenie-Ann Mcpherson in the women’s 400m.

At the Doha meeting, it was the Olympic silver medalist Paulino who dominated proceedings.  Running from an inside lane, the Dominican tracked Miller-Uibo well before coming off the curve with a lead.  The typically strong-finishing Miller-Uibo not only failed to make up ground on Paulino but was overtaken near the line by McPherson who nabbed second spot.

Paulino took the top spot with a time of 51.20, followed by McPherson, second in 51.69, and Miller-Uibo third in 51.84.  Barbados’ Sada Williams was next, and she finished ahead of another Jamaican, Candice McLeod.

In the meantime, the women’s 200m was won by the United States’ Gabrielle Thomas who took top spot after outbattling Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson down the stretch to stop the clock at 21.98, ahead of Jackson’s 22.07.  Great Britain’s Dina Asher was third in 22.37.

In other events, Grenadian Anderson Peters dominated the men’s javelin to take top spot with a throw of 93.07, while Jamaica’s Shanieka Ricketts captured the women’s long jump.

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).

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.

Reigning Olympic 400m champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo will go head-to-head with Jamaicans Stefanie Ann-Mcpherson and Candice McLeod when the 2022 Diamond League season runs off with the Doha meet, in Qatar, on Friday.

The Bahamian will head into the event as favourite, on the back of a strong indoor season where she added the Indoor title to her medal collection, in Belgrade.  The Doha meeting will feature the first match-up between the trio since the Olympics, where Miller-Uibo took gold and Mcpherson and McLeod finished just outside the medals.

In the half-lap event, Olympic 100m bronze medallist Shericka Jackson will battle reigning 200m champion Diner Asher-Smith of Great Britain, who will be opening her season in the event.  The field is also set to feature a rejuvenated Anthonique Strachan of the Bahamas and Olympic finalist Gabby Thomas of the US.

There will also be a strong Caribbean presence in the women’s 100m hurdles with the Jamaican duo of Olympic bronze medallist Megan Tapper facing off with compatriot Britany Anderson.  The Bahamas’ Devynne Charlton will also be part of that field.

Jamaican Olympian Christania Williams is making a comeback from some tough times with the hopes of getting back to her best in the near future.

The 27-year-old former Edwin Allen High School star last showed up last weekend, May 7, 2022, at the JAAA/SDF Jubilee Series meet at the National Stadium in Kingston where she produced times of 11.62 to finish third in her preliminary round heat and then ran a season-best 11.55 in the final for a sixth-place finish behind winner Shericka Jackson (11.00).

She revealed afterwards that after enduring a rough period, she is hoping to improve with each race she runs this season.

“I have been through a lot. I am happy to be here. The main focus right now is just me against me and improving in each race,” said Williams afterwards while also revealing that she is no longer a member of the Tumbleweed training group in Jacksonville, but was training elsewhere in Florida.

She declined to reveal where or with whom.

“I am not training on my own but for now I am not sharing that information,” she said.

The talented sprinter won silver medals for Jamaica in the 100m and 4x100m relay at the 2018 Commonwealth Games on Australia’s Gold Coast and also won a silver medal at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games as a member of Jamaica’s 4x100m relay squad.

She ran a lifetime best of 10.96 in the 100m semi-finals in Brazil and finished eighth in the final won by Elaine Thompson-Herah. Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce was third.

At the time she was a member of the MVP Track Club in Kingston but she eventually left for the Rana-Reider led Tumbleweed Training Group in Jacksonville, Florida in early 2020, just before the world shut down in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Like most of the world’s athletes, Williams did not compete in 2020. In 2021, she ventured into a few indoor meets and had a season-best 7.14 in Fayetteville in February. Another four races followed outdoors, the last of them occurring on May 31 when she ran 11.38 at the Duvall County Challenge in Jacksonville.

April 23, 2022, almost a year later was the next time she raced; at the Tru Fit Athletic Sprint Series in Miami, Florida where she ran 11.54 for a fourth-place finish in her heat and then 11.79 for seventh in the final.

Toyko Olympics triple gold medallist Elaine Thompson-Herah said her 22.75 200m run at the JAAA/SDF Jubilee meet on Saturday was about shaking the rust off as she continues on her quest to win her first gold medal at the World Championships in Oregon this summer.

Now that he has finally been able to train consistently after two years of disruption caused by the global pandemic, Traves Smikle produced his best throw in three years to achieve the qualifying mark for this summer’s World Athletics Championships at the second JAAA/SDF Jubilee Series meet at the National Stadium in Kingston on Saturday.

Smikle, the 2018 NACAC silver medallist, threw a season-best 66.60m for the victory, his best throw since he threw 67.57m in January 2019. It was the perfect birthday present for Smikle, who revealed afterwards that it was a welcome reprieve from a tough past couple of years.

“The last two years have been crazy with the pandemic and everything. It was very difficult to get into a training flow and now that things are better, not perfect but better, my coach and I got some consistent work in,” said Smikle, who won JMD$90,000 for the win.

“For the season I have been averaging 64/65m. We have been knocking at the door and we finally got it (the qualifying mark) today on my birthday and I am happy about that.”

Noticeably bigger than he has been in previous years, Smikle revealed that his increase in size is also part of his coach Julian Robinson’s plan for him to throw farther this year.

“One of the things my coach wanted me to do is put on a little more weight and we are doing some explosive work, trying to keep consistent with training and today we saw the fruits of our labour,” he said.

Smikle’s throw makes him Jamaica’s best thrower this year ahead of his training partner and friend, Fedrick Dacres, the 2018 Commonwealth Games champion and 2019 World Championships silver medallist and, at least for now, gives him bragging rights in the Reckless Control training group.

Dacres, he said, is sure to use it as motivation to throw beyond the 65.98m he threw at the same venue just over a week ago, the next time he competes.

“Fedrick is a phenomenal athlete and we have been training hard, he has been working hard and we are on track. It is only a matter of time before he hits a big throw,” Smikle said of Dacres.

“Both of us have been averaging over 65m and we just want to work hard and respect each other. I am pretty sure he has seen this mark and it is going fire him up to get something big so the next time we compete, it’s going to be a good one.”

Danielle Williams, the 2015 100m hurdles world champion, was in fine form on Saturday, winning the 100m dash and 100m hurdles double at the Tennessee Challenge at the Tom Black Track at LaPorte Stadium in Knoxville.

The 2019 world championships bronze medallist won the 100m in 11.57 ahead of the USA’s Eboni Coby (11.66) and Cote d’Ivoire’s Karel Ziteh (11.68) before returning to win the hurdles in 12.95, comfortably ahead of the only other competitor in the race, Lindsay Cooper of East Tennessee State who ran (14.27).

Williams ran a season’s best 12.61 at the South Carolina Open on April 23^rd, a time that currently puts her seventh on the world rankings for 2022.

Former STETHS sprinter Dashinelle Dyer, now competing for Clemson, was second in the Men’s 100m in 10.37 behind the USA’s Mario Heslop (10.33). Another Jamaican, Noxroy Wright, ran 10.70 for third.

Michelle Lee Ahye ran a season-best 10.94 to win the 100m at the American Track League Orange County Classic in California on Saturday.