Levy tops Italy field in 13.37 seconds

OLYMPIC BRONZE medallist, Ronald Levy, emerged the only Jamaican winner as World Athletics’ Intercontinental Tour continued yesterday at the Palio Città della Quercia meeting in Italy, taking the men’s 110 metres hurdles final in 13.37 seconds.

Running with a very slight 0.2 wind at his back, Levy, with a personal best 13.05 seconds, broke evenly with American Michael Dickson and both were engaged in a neck-to-neck duel until about the eighth hurdle, when the Jamaica national champion got a stride on his challenger and held his composure to win the event.

Dickson, who lost a bit of momentum as he hit the final hurdle in a desperate attempt to rescue a lost cause, clocked 13.50 seconds to place ahead of Hungarian Aaldo Szucs, who finished third in 13.65 seconds.

Junelle Bromfield, who placed second in the women’s 400 metres, numbered among two other Jamaicans who claimed podium finishes at the meet. The other was men’s sprinter Julian Forte, who took third in the 100 metres.

Bromfield, a member of Jamaica’s 4x400 metres women’s team that claimed bronze at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, ran a measured 400 metres but could not find enough to catch Russian athlete Polina Miller, who held her form and finished smoothly to win in 51.21 seconds.

Bromfield was second in 51.49 seconds, beating off the challenge of the United States’ Kaylin Whitney, who timed 51.78 for third.

In the men’s 100 metres final, Forte was late coming out of the blocks but ran on strongly to snatch third in 10.19 seconds ahead of Australia’s Rohan Browning.

Marvin Bracy of the United States won easily in 9.98 seconds ahead of Canadian Jerome Blake, who clocked 10.15. Another Jamaican participant in the event, Nigel Ellis, fresh out of St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) and into competition with the big men, could not find his rhythm and never factored at any point at all. He eventually placed seventh in 10.48 seconds.

With none of the big three in Elaine Thompson Herah, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Shericka Jackson at the meet, Natasha Morrison represented in the women’s 100 metres.

However, Morrison, a member of Jamaica’s sprint relay gold medal team in Tokyo and with a season best 10.87 seconds, has been facing a real battle in the different conditions, running inconsistently to end on the less favoured tangent of her recent trend to finish fifth in 11.26 seconds. Three days earlier, Morrison was fourth at the Paris Diamond League meeting in 11.09 seconds, having won in Hungary on August 24 in 11 seconds flat.

Trinidad and Tobago’s Michelle-Lee Ahye won yesterdays’ race in Italy in 11.02 seconds, defeating Americans Candace Hill, 11.21, and Kayla White, 11.24.

Rusheen McDonald’s struggles continued in the men’s 400 metres where he faded terribly down the homestretch to finish at the back of the eight-man field. McDonald clocked 46.50 seconds.

The United States’ Michael Cherry registered an easy victory in 44.5 seconds, brushing off the challenge of Botswana’s Isaac Makwala, 45.02, while Trinidad and Tobago’s Deon Lendore finished third in 45.19.

Jamaica’s O’Dayne Richards, hampered by injuries for a while, placed fifth in the men’s shot put with a 19.69-metre heave. Home favourite Zane Weir gave his Italian country men and women something to cheer about by winning with a 21.32 metres throw, finishing ahead of Zew Zealand’s Jacko Gill, 21.20 metres, and the United States’ Josh Awotunde, 20.59m.

audley.boyd@gleanerjm.com