Goule in pole position for gold medal
• McPherson bronze the highlight of tough second day at World Indoors • Caribbean power on show over 400 metres
Published:Sunday | March 20, 2022 | 12:12 AMRaymond Graham - Gleaner Writer
VETERAN 400-METRE specialist Stephenie Ann McPherson picked up the country’s first medal on yesterday’s second day of competition at the World Athletics Indoor Champonships in Belgrade, Serbia, as the Tokyo Olympic Games finalist produced a National Indoor record of 50.79 seconds to finish third in the women’s 400 metre.
Olympic champion, the Bahamas’ Shaunae Miller Uibo, won the gold in a season’s best 50.37 seconds, with Femke Bol of the Netherlands taking silver in 50.57 seconds.
McPherson, who was the fastest qualifier advancing to the finals, ran her heart out but failed to peg back both Miller Uibo and Bol, maintaining her third-place position for the duration of the race.
It was a Caribbean double yesterday, as Trinidad and Tobago’s Jereem Richards picked up gold in the men’s event, in a national indoor and championship record, 45.00 seconds. Also an ace 200-metre runner, Richards finished ahead of the United States’ Trevor Bassett, who ran a personal best 45.05 seconds. Carl Bengstrom of Sweden was third in 45.33, another national record.
Richards had vowed going to the championships that he was going to win the gold medal in memory of his friend and former teammate, quarter miler Deon Lendore, who died in a car accident in Texas in January.
In another final involving a Jamaican athlete yesterday, Britany Anderson had to settle for fourth in the women’s 60-metre hurdles, in 7.95 seconds. Anderson, who finished second in her semi-finals in 7.82 seconds, to be the second-fastest qualifier going into the finals, got off to an average start and failed to produce her normal strong finish as Frenchwoman Cyrena Samba Mayela won the gold medal in a personal best and national record, 7.78.
There was also a national record for the Bahamas’ Devynne Charlton, who was second in 7.81, and personal best 7.87 for third-place finisher, Gabrielle Cunningham of the United States.
MAJOR SETBACK
Earlier, there was a major setback for Jamaica’s Danielle Williams.
Unbeaten in the event all season and the world leader with a personal best of 7.75 seconds, the unlucky Williams ran into early problems in her heat.
She hit hurdle three then clattered into hurdle four with her knee, breaking it, and failed to recover, finishing sixth in 8.23 seconds and failing to advance from the preliminary round.
Two other Jamaicans, Nigel Ellis and Natoya Goule, were in action yesterday.
Ellis first produced a personal best of 6.64 seconds for a second-place finish in the preliminary round of the men’s 60 metres to advance to the semi-final where he finished fifth in 6.65.
Competing in the semi-final of the women’s 800 metres, Goule, the second-ranked athlete in the world, qualified easily to today’s final, winning her heat in two minutes, 01.65 seconds. The win made Goule the fourth-fastest qualifier for today’s final, scheduled for 12:05 p.m.
Goule will be running out of lane five.
With world leader and pre-race favourite, Keely Hodgkinson of Great Britain, pulling out of the meet minutes before the start with a quadracep injury, Goule will start favourite to win her first major global title.
Ronald Levy and Kimberly Williamson will be involved in individual events for Jamaica, on today’s third and final day of competition.
Levy will take the track at 4:05 a.m. in the preliminary round of the men’s 60m hurdles, while Williamson, the 2018 silver medallist in the women’s triple jump, will be hoping for more success here as she competes in the finals of the event at 5 a.m.
Jamaica will also be hoping for a relay medal as the preliminary round of the women’s 4x400m gets underway at 5:45 a.m. Jamaica will run out of lane five in heat two