Scott stars at US college meet

KNOXVILLE: Top Caribbean competitors Elva Goulbourne, Candice Scott and Leevan Sands emerged champions this past weekend at the South-East Conference (SEC) track and field championship.

Jamaican Goulbourne and Trinidad and Tobago’s Scott, who smashed Penn Relay records in Philadelphia last month, continued their fine form by capturing the women’s long jump and hammer events respectively. Sands, of the Bahamas, landed the men’s triple jump title. Commonwealth champion Goulbourne, who won the NCAA Indoor title in March, posted 6.83 metres to win the women’s long jump for Auburn with fellow Jamaican Camille Rhule third at 6.45 metres. Scott hurled the hammer for a winning 66.41 metres, beating her Florida teammate Jukina Dickenson (63.82m). Scott also took silver in the shot put at 16.74 metres. Sands was measured at 16.82 metres for his triple jump win and he took second in the long jump at 7.77 metres, representing Auburn. Grenadians Hazel-Ann Regis and Neisha Bernard-Thomas, and Jamaicans Aileen Bailey, Latonel Williams, and Maurice Smith snatched top-three finishes at the meet, staged at the University of Tennessee.

Bernard-Thomas lowered her national record for the second time within a month as she placed second in the 800 metres in two minutes 03.32 seconds. Regis also finished second in the 400 metres, clocking 51.75 seconds. Grenadian sprinter Sean Lambert (Tennessee) failed to make any of the sprint finals, but he helped Tennessee win the 4X100-metre relay in 38.92 seconds. Bailey was third in the women’s 100 metres in 11.24 seconds and third as well in the 200 in 22.94, while Williams (10.30) took third in the men’s 100 in which Trinidadian Marc Burns was fifth in 10.38. Smith gathered 7,739 points for second in the decathlon.