Williams, Young impress at indoor meets

Five Jamaicans enjoyed success over the weekend at indoor athletics meets in the United States, with Kimberly Williams, Charokee Young, Kiara Grant, Annia Ashley and Shakwon Coke all scoring wins.

Also impressing were Odaine Lewis, Clive Pullen, Damion Thomas and Peter Gay McKenzie, who all secured top-three finishes in their events.

Both Williams and Young won their disciplines at the Texas Technical Invitational Meet.

Williams, a two-time Olympic finalist and a silver medal winner at the last World Athletics Indoor Championships in 2018, won the triple jump with a mark of 14.11 metres, getting the better of Cynamon Stevenson of Texas A&M University, who was second with 13.49 metres.

Former Hydel star Young, now a freshman at Texas A&M University, topped the field in the women’s 800 metres, after she was timed in 2:08.38 minutes, with Alyssa Brewer of the University of Southern California placing second in 2:08.56, and Bailey Goggens taking third in 2:08.71.

National senior representatives Odaine Lewis, formerly of Cornwall College, and Clive Pullen, formerly of Kingston College (KC), finished third in the long and triple jump events, respectively.

Lewis had a distance of 7.76 metres in the long jump event, while Pullen did 16.51 metres in the triple jump.

BLACK AND GOLD INVITATIONAL MEET

There were also two wins for Jamaicans at the Black and Gold Invitational Meet in Iowa through Ashley and Coke, who are both freshmen at Barton Town Community College.

Ashley, the former Edwin Allen high jumper, won the women’s high jump after clearing 1.70m, while former KC man Coke registered a record leap of 7.60m in winning the men’s long jump, breaking the old mark of 7.31m set two years ago.

Meanwhile, Grant, the former Convent of Mercy (Alpha) sprinter, scored an impressive win at the Penn State Open.

Competing for Norfolk State University, she easily took the women’s 60m event in 7.20 seconds, as Jaliyah Elliot of Youngstown University was second in 7.34 seconds, with third going to Crystal Johnson of Townson University in 7.40 seconds.

Here, former Edwin Allen standout Peter- Gay McKenzie, a sophomore at West Virginia University, finished third in the women’s long jump after leaping to 5.93 metres.

After being cut down by injuries for most of last season, 2018 World Under-20 110 metres hurdles champion, Damion Thomas, had a third-place finish in the men’s 60m hurdles at the Razorback Invitational at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.

Thomas clocked 7.76 seconds, the same time as second-place finisher Carl Elliot III of the University of Arkansas.

Thomas’ teammate, Eric Edwards, won the event in 7.66 seconds.

At the same meet, former St Catherine High sprinter Julien Alfred, a native of St Lucia and a sophomore at the University of Texas Longhorns, captured the women’s 60 metres in 7.15 seconds, while she had a second-place finish in the 200 metres in 23.08 seconds.