Grenadian quarter mile star Kirani James has expressed delight in winning the men’s 400 metres at the Diamond League final in Zurich, Switzerland on Thursday.
James finished comfortably ahead of the United States Bryce Deadmon and Brendon Norwood. The athlete’s latest win was the third occasion that he has claimed the title, adding to wins in 2011 and 2015.
The Grenadian has enjoyed somewhat a bit of resurgence in recent seasons after recovering from injury and illness. In July, the athlete captured silver in the event at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon.
“I am feeling good. It feels great to be the diamond race winner. The race was good, very competitive, against the best guys in the world,” James said following the event.
“Although it was very unfortunate that Matthew got injured during warmup and had to pull out at the last minute.
He is the European champion and I would have liked to compete against him,” he added.
“I have one more meeting coming, I try to enjoy every moment and represent my country. It is special for me to win here today after eleven years when I also won in Zurich.”
Jamaica sprint queen Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce has put together one of the most exceptional seasons in track and field history, after dominating the 100m at the World Championships, and clocking a number of blistering times, she has just one objective left, to keep running fast.
Earlier this week, the sprinter clocked a speedy 10.62 at the Monaco Diamond League meet. The time was the athlete’s best this season and just two hundredths of a second outside her personal best. Even more remarkable was the fact that the performance marked the sprinter’s 6th sub-10.7 time this season, the most by any female athlete in history.
Despite all that she has achieved so far, the sprinter is not quite ready to end the season just yet.
“To be able to run 10.6 consistently means a lot to me. It is remarkable. It is very hard to keep the speed at this high level,” Fraser-Pryce said.
“It is important for me to deliver fast times because I´m looking forward for myself to having a great season,” she added.
“I´m in my late thirties, and I think I feel like I have more to give. I look forward to doing my Personal Best for the rest of the season and running fast.
“As a sprinter, you always want to run on the fast track. The only target I have for the rest of the season is just to run fast. Now, we break, and then we come again. Not sure about Lausanne yet.”
With five events to go Fraser-Pryce is also in contention for the 100m Diamond League title.
Polish Indoor champion Ewa Swoboda is looking forward to facing decorated Jamaica sprinter Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce at the Wanda Diamond League in August.
The duo has been booked to face off in the 100m, an event that the Jamaican has so far shown strong form in this season. Fraser-Pryce has clocked the fastest time in the world so far this season, courtesy of a 10.67 clocking in Nairobi in May, which was equalled, in France, in June.
Swoboda, for her part, improved her personal best to 11.05 in Paris last month.
"I feel proud to have my name mentioned alongside Shelly-Ann's. She is an icon," Swoboda said.
"Each athlete dreams of achieving at least half of what Fraser-Pryce has and to stay at the top for this long,” she added.
"I hope it will be the best women's 100m race ever to take place on Polish soil. On 6 August I would like to finish as close to the legend as possible."
The two could, however, could also meet at the Oregon World Championships later this month, where Fraser-Pryce will be looking to defend her world title.
American-born Andrew Hudson will not be able to represent Jamaica at the upcoming World Championships in Eugene, Oregon, despite winning the 200m event at the Jamaica National Championships.
Hudson stunned onlookers at the country’s national trials after finishing ahead of pre-race favourite and 2011 World Champion Yohan Blake, with Nigel Ellis finishing in third place.
Hudson was one of three athletes who applied to the Jamaica Athletic Administrative Association to switch allegiance and were approved to compete at the championships. The JAAA was optimistic regarding the athlete being given clearance to represent the country before the World Championships in Oregon.
According to a release, however, the athletes will not receive clearance in time for the games. Hudson will as a result not be eligible to compete for Jamaica until July 28th and has been replaced by fourth-place finisher Akeem Bloomfield in the 200m. The JAAA also released the rest of the squad.
Newly minted women’s 100m champion, Shericka Jackson, believes something special could be in store as she gets ready to tackle double the distance at the ongoing Jamaica National Championships.
The Tokyo Olympics 100m bronze medallist looked in superb form as she ran away from reigning Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah to claim the event in 10.77. The win was the first for the talented all-around sprinter having previously claimed two 400m titles and one over 200m.
Despite being thrilled with the result the athlete was quick to admit that she was not entirely satisfied and looking for a faster time. Jackson finished one-hundredth of a second outside her personal best.
“I’m feeling good but I’m actually a little disappointed with the time, knowing where I am at in training, but I will take it for now,” the sprinter said after the race.
With the women’s 200m set to run off on Saturday, however, Jackson has another opportunity to show just how far she has progressed, and she intends to take it.
“Something special will be in store for that event,” Jackson added.
The athlete has been one of the event's standout performers this season and clocked the third-fastest time over the distance this year with a 21.91 showing in Rome.
Reigning Olympic 400m champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo has revealed that she expects to step away from the event by the next Olympic Games.
The Bahamian sprinter has claimed the title at the last two Olympics and could have been the first woman to win the event at three consecutive events.
Miller-Uibo, who has the 7th fastest time over the event all-time, and 3rd fastest in the last 25 years, has now revealed that she does not expect to face the starter in Paris.
“To be honest, I don’t think I’ll be doing the 400m that year [2024],” Miller-Uibo said on Wednesday ahead of Thursday’s Diamond League meet in Rome.
“I’m planning on wrapping it up. I’ve accomplished so much in the event, for me, it’s just about getting the world title now.”
Despite dominating at the Olympics, the athlete has never won the World Championship title with her best results coming in 2015 and 2019 when she was second behind Allyson Felix and Salwa Eid Naser respectively. In the future, the sprinter plans to focus her effort on the 200m.
On Thursday, Miller-Uibo will face a quality 200m field, which includes reigning 200m Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah, reigning World champion Dina Asher-Smith and Felix.
Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Bronze medallist Deon Lendore died last night after reportedly succumbing to injuries he suffered in a car accident in Texas.
The 29-year-old from Arima, whose 400m personal best was 44.36, was part of the Trinidad and Tobago team that won bronze in the Men’s 4x400m at the 2012 London Olympics and silver at the 2015 World Championships in the same event.
Individually, Lendore won bronze medals in the 400m at the World Indoor Championships, in Oregon, in 2016, where he was also part of T&T's bronze medal-winning 4x400m team and Birmingham in 2018.
A three-time Pan Am Junior Championships silver medallist, Lendore also had a wonderful junior career, which resulted in him excelling at Texas A&M University, winning the Bowerman award in 2014.
President of the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee, Brian Lewis, reacted to the unfortunate news.
“Words cannot adequately express our sadness at the devastating and untimely loss. Deon has flown the Trinidad and Tobago flag with pride, honour, patriotism, and an indomitable will throughout his career while helping and inspiring many. We express our deepest and heartfelt condolences to his family, friends, teammates, coaches, and all who he would have touched. May Deon Rest and Sleep in Eternal Peace,” he said.
Lendore represented T&T at three Olympic Games in 2012, 2016 and 2021 and three World Championships in 2013, 2015 and 2019.
Olympic double sprint champion Elaine Thompson-Herah has roped in another award on the back of her stellar 2021 season.
The 29-year-old sprinter was on Wednesday named the Track and Field News Female Athlete of the Year.
Thompson-Herah was voted the winner of the award by a 35-member international voting panel of the highly-respected track and field magazine, narrowly edging Venezuela's Olympic triple jump gold medalist and world-record holder, Yulimar Rojas.
The remainder of the top-five in voting included Dutch distance runner Sifan Hassan, American 400m Hurdler Sydney McLaughlin and Kenyan middle-distance runner Faith Kipyegon.
During her history-making season, Thompson-Herah became the first woman to win the 100m, 200m sprint double at consecutive Olympics, winning the 100m in a time of 10.61, an Olympic record, and the 200m in 21.53 in Tokyo in July.
She would go even faster in the 100m at the Prefontaine Classic in August, recording a 10.54-second clocking, the second-fastest time in history.
Thompson-Herah was also named World Athletics Female Athlete of the Year and the British Journal Athletics Weekly’s Female Athlete of the Year this month. She was also named NACAC Female Athlete of the Year and is favoured to be the RJR Sportswoman of the Year for 2021.
Several Caribbean athletes were on show as the NCAA Indoor Track & Field season continued at the Kansas State Winter Invitational on December 11.
Bahamian Kyle Alcine, competing for Kansas State, won the high jump with a clearance of 2.05m.
Alcine, the silver medallist at the NACAC Under 23 Championships in Costa Rica earlier this year, finished ahead of Kansas State teammate Kamyren Garrett who also cleared 2.05 metres and Kaleb Clark of William Carey jumped 1.95 for third.
Guyana’s Chantoba Bright, also representing Kansas State, was also a winner at the meet soaring out to 13.31 metres to win the triple jump.
Bright, who won a silver medal in the same event at the recently concluded Pan Am Junior Championships in Colombia, finished ahead of Allanah Lee of Oklahoma who jumped out to 12.28m and Nevagant Jones of William Carey who was third with 11.77m.
Meanwhile, Jamaica’s Fredricka McKenzie, competing for William Carey University, was second in the Women’s 60 metres in 7.52.
McKenzie is a former Edwin Allen High School student who narrowly missed out on an individual medal at Jamaica’s Boys and Girls High School Track & Field Championships or “Champs” on two separate occasions. She was fourth in the Girls Class One 200m in 2018 and a year later, fourth in the Girls Class One 100m.
The race was won by Wurrie Njadoe of Kansas State in 7.45 while her teammate Velecia Williams was third in 7.54.
Williams is a former Hydel High School student, who won silver medals in both the long and triple jump at the 2018 CARIFTA Games in The Bahamas.
Another Jamaican representing Kansas State, Taishia Pryce, finished fourth in 7.60.
Pryce, a former student at the St. Andrew Technical High School, also ran 39.35 to finish second in the Women’s 300m that Njadoe won in 38.42, a new meet record.
After the high of winning three straight titles, Jamaica did not contest the final of the Olympic men’s 100m for the first time in two decades, as the event culminated on Sunday.
In the end, history was made as the title went to Italy’s Marcell Jacobs, which was the first time that country was winning the title. At the starter blocks, however, the famous black, green, and gold gear, which has become synonymous with speed, particularly over the last decade, was nowhere to be seen.
The country’s two representatives in the event Yohan Blake and Oblique Seville exited the competition at the semi-final stage. Seville failed to advance after finishing fourth in semi-final two, with a time of 10.09. Blake saw his bid come to an end after finishing a disappointing 6th in semi-final 1, with a time of 10.14. The country’s other entrant Tyquendo Tracey, Jamaica's national champion, pulled out of the competition before the heats after sustaining an injury.
It was a particularly disappointing end for Blake, likely to be in his final Olympics. For several years he was considered the heir apparent to compatriot Usain Bolt, who dominated the event for the last three editions, the first man in history to do so. Blake has the second-fastest time ever run over the event (9.69) and finished just behind the great sprinter at the 2012 edition of the Games in London.
Since sustaining devastating hamstring injuries in 2013 and 2014, however, Blake has not come close to rediscovering his best form. At the previous edition of the event in Rio 2016, he finished just outside the medals behind Canada's Andre De Grasse, the USA’s Justin Gatlin, and Bolt.
Jamaica sprinter Yohan Blake will have his hands full at the Tokyo Olympics not just taking part in two events on the track but also serving as a panelist for India Broadcasters Sony Sport.
The 31-year-old, who will be competing in his third Olympics, will participate in the 100m and 200m sprints. Blake was once thought to be the heir apparent to illustrious compatriot Usain Bolt and holds the seconnd fastest times ever recorded over both events.
Following hamstring injuries in 2013 and 2014, however, he has failed to replicate that kind of form in recent years. In fact, in Tokyo, he will be looking to make it on the podium at major games for the first time in nine years. Whether he gets among the medals or not, however, the sprinter could already be considering what’s next.
“I am very excited to associate with Sony Sports as an expert panelist on their live wrap-around studio show, SPORTS EXTRAAA, and take fans closer to the Olympic Games in Tokyo 2020. Not only will the viewers in India watch me proudly represent my country at the Games but they will also watch me provide insights on the performance of the world's finest on the grand stage,” Blake told South Asian news agency ANI.
The programs will be broadcast all across India.
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