TT in Pan Am medal rush

BRIDGETOWN: Jamaica, hosts Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago shared in the opening day medal rush as sprint hurdler Kenneth Ferguson stole the spotlight with a record run to lead an imposing start for the Americans at the XII Pan American Junior Track and Field Championships on Friday.

Ferguson broke away from the 110-metre hurdles field in the last 40 metres to post a new championship time of 13.60 seconds, erasing a 23-year-old record. St Lucian Lavern Spencer, Barbadians Shernell Nichols and Jessie King, Trinidad and Tobago’s Wanda Hutson, and Jamaicans Keisha Brown and Sherone Simpson all landed medals on day one, which saw the USA winning seven of the 12 gold medals on offer. In the men’s sprint hurdles, Ferguson smashed Rodney Wilson’s 1980 mark of 13.71 seconds. King (14.46) copped the bronze for the first Barbados medal, as Dexter Faulk (13.82) ensured a one-two finishing for the USA.

In the women’s 100 hurdles, the USA also secured the top two positions with Dawn Harper (13.42) and Alandra Sherman (13.80). Jamaica’s Brown won the bronze at 13.86 seconds.
Nicholls collected the home team’s second medal as she won bronze in the women’s discus throw with a distance of 40.64 metres, behind the American pair of Amarachi Ukabam (52.05 metres) and Beth Mallory (50.91 metres). The USA’s authoritative start was emphasised in the night’s last track event when their national junior champion Shalonda Soloman took the women’s 100 metres in 11.35 seconds, ahead of Jamaica’s Simpson (11.44) and TT’s Wanda Hutson (11.58).

In the absence of Trinidad and Tobago’s world junior champion Darrel Brown, Daniel Bailey of Antigua and Barbuda is the leading contender for the English-speaking Caribbean in the men’s 100 metres. He had the fastest qualifying time in the men’s 100-metre preliminaries of 10.65 seconds. Other top qualifiers are Chu-randy Martina of the Netherlands Antilles (10.66), Carlos Moore of the USA (10.67) and Jamaican Tesfa Latty (10.67). Brown is missing the meet because of commitments in Europe. St Lucian Spencer, the 2001 World Youth bronze medallist, copped the final medal of day one for the Caribbean when she posted 1.83 metres for second in the women’s high jump. With the event concluding at approximately midnight, Sharon Day of the USA (1.85 metres) won the gold, and Chaunte Howard, also of the USA (1.81) secured the bronze.