Alexander eighth in 60m final at ‘worlds’

SPRINTER Niconnor Alexander finished eighth and last in the men’s 60-metre final as the 10th IAAF World Indoor Championships began at Budapest, Hungary yesterday.

Trinidad and Tobago’s other two participants, quartermiler Ato Modibo and shot-putter Cleopatra Borel, fared no better as they were eliminated in the preliminary round stage of their events. Alexander, running in lane seven, had the second fastest reaction time of 0.139 seconds but faded badly in the end, clocking a slow 6.76 seconds. Pre-race favourite Jason Gardner of Great Britain took gold in 6.49 seconds, followed by American Shawn Crawford in 6.52 seconds and Greece’s Yeoryios Theodorodis who was timed in 6.54 seconds. Fourth went to American Mickey Grimes 6.55, followed by Matic Osovnikar of Slovenia 6.58, Nigerian-born Polish sprinter Francis Obikwelu 6.60 and Italian Simone Collio 6.60. Alexander had a fine start to the day’s proceedings, as he set a personal best time of 6.55 seconds to finish as the runner-up in heat five of the prelims. Alexander, who ran in lane two, was beaten by Crawford who recorded 6.52.

Ten hours later he returned to the track in the second of three semi-finals, but the Texas-based athlete again placed second in a time of 6.61, behind Osovnikar’s 6.60. Modibo’s time of 47.62 in heat three of the 400m prelims was not good enough to carry him in today’s semi-final stage. Modibo trailed winner Joe Mendel of the US 47.33, Australian Casey Vincent 47.42 and Botswanian California Molefe 47.58, with Chris Lloyd of Denmark fifth in 47.78. In the women’s shot put, Borel placed seventh in the ten qualifiers in Group “A” with her best attempt of 18.19 metres. Advancing to today’s final were Russian Svetlana Krivelyova (19.46m), Chinese Meiju Li (18.76m), Nadine Kleinert of Germany (18.62m), Nadezhda Ostapchuk of Belarus (18.60m) and Cuban Misleydis Gonzalez (18.56m).