Scott gets record win at Penn Relays

PHILADELPHIA: Trinidad and Tobago’s Pan Am Games bronze medallist Candice Scott broke her own US Collegiate record to retain the women’s hammer title at the 110th Penn Relays on Saturday. With a mark of 69.84 metres, Scott also improved on her Trinidad and Tobago national record to cop the prize as college women’s athlete of the meet for individual events. Scott, TT’s 2003 “Sportswoman of the Year”, bettered her previous personal best of 69.79 metres, she achieved at the 2003 NCAA Championship in Sacramento. American star Marion Jones, on the comeback trail after giving birth to her first child last year, was a double winner.  She anchored USA Red women’s teams to victory in the 4x100 and 4x200-metre relays in her second outdoor meet since her comeback from maternity leave.

In the 4x100, Jones teamed with Angela Daigle, Chryste Gaines and Inger Miller to win comfortably, 42.63 to 43.28, over a Jamaican team that included Aleen Bailey and Brigitte Foster. Gaines and Miller joined Jones again in winning the 4 x 200 in 1:29.40 ahead of USA Blue, with Jamaica (Aleen Bailey, Sheryl Morgan, Ronetta Smith, Jodi-Ann Powell) third in 1:32.44. In the men’s 4x100, Jon Drummond ran the opening leg for the USA Red as they won in 38.42 seconds.  The Jamaican team of Lindel Frater, Patrick Jarrett, Latonel Williams and Asafa Powell placed second in 39.02, and the Canadian team of Nic Macrozonaris, Anson Henry, Charles Allen and Pierre Brown was third in 39.65.

The USA Red team’s victory in the men’s 4x100m was part of a sweep of six races for the Americans in the featured “USA vs The World” competition. World Outdoor champion Jerome Young dashed the hopes of the All-Stars and Jamaica with a dominant third leg in 44.6 seconds, and Tyree Washington extended the lead as USA Red won the men’s 1600-metre relay in 2:58.93. The All-Stars, with Grenada’s World Indoor champion Alleyne Francique, Gary Kikaya, Sophiane Labidi, and the Dominican Republic’s Felix Sanchez, got second in 3:00.76, with Jamaica (Michael Campbell, Brandon Simpson, Usain Bolt, Germaine Gonzalez) third in 3:01.10. Jamaican Sekou Clarke and Trinidadian Kerron Clement were part of Florida’s winning 4x400m relay team (3:01.10) that won the college relay athletes of the meet award.  Jamaica’s Vere Technical won the High School Girls’ 4x100 in a meet record 44.32. (CMC)