Scott goes for NCAA indoor gold

FAYETEVILLE: Top Caribbean athletes Veronica Campbell, Hazel-Ann Regis, Leevan Sands, and Candice Scott, are in pole position for gold medals at the US National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Indoor Championship this weekend. Jamaican Campbell, Regis of Grenada, Bahamian Sands, and Scott of Trinidad and Tobago all enter their events with number one rankings for the two-day meet at the University of Arkansas, starting today. For the women’s 200 metres, Campbell is a hot favourite and world leader with her swift 22.51 clocking at last month’s Tyson Foods Invitational.  A junior at the University of Arkansas, she is also poised for a big run in the 60 metres for which she is number two behind American Muna Lee (7.17) with her a 7.20-second season’s best.

Trinidad and Tobago’s Fana Ashby, one of several Caribbean athletes competing in the Auburn University outfit, is also a medal candidate with a season’s best 7.29 seconds. Central American and Caribbean (CAC) champion Regis, competing for Louisiana State University (LSU), ran a 2004 collegiate best 51.13 seconds in winning the SEC title in Kentucky last month and is favourite for the 400 metres. Jamaica-born American Sanya Richards (51.45) is number two, while Florida’s Novlene Williams (Jamaica) and Tiandra Ponteen (St Kitts and Nevis) also have top-ten rankings going in. Auburn’s Sands won long jump gold and triple jump silver at last year’s NCAA Outdoor Championship in Sacramento, and leads the NCAA jumpers indoors this season in the triple jump at 17.02 metres and is number two in the long jump at 8.10 metres.
Florida’s Scott is TT’s 2003 Sportswoman of the Year and bronze medallist at the Pan Am Games in the hammer.

She is number one for the weight throw this weekend and holds a top-ten rating for the shot. Other prominent Caribbean names for the meet include Jamaicans Pete Coley (men’s 400 metres), Andrea Bliss (men’s 60-metre hurdles), Shelli-Ann Gallimore (women’s triple jump) and Peaches Roach (women’s high jump), Trinidad and Tobago’s Sheridan Kirk (men’s 800 metres), Bahamian Shamar Sands, a silver medallist in the 60-metre hurdles last year, Barbadians Kevin Bartlett (long jump) and Desiree Chrichlow (women’s high jump), Trinidadian Marc Burns and Grenada’s Sean Lambert, both in the men’s 100 metres.