Jamaica and Bahamas male and female national volleyball teams completed an intense two days of training at the UWI court in Jamaica on June 21-22 . The Jamaican contingent wrapped up the series 3-1 in favour of the male team with the female running out 4-0 winners.

Jamaican male and female teams both won the four match training sessions 3-1. The training session is part preparation for the upcoming Caribbean Volleyball Championships to be held in Barabdos during the week of July 13-21.

In game 1 the Jamaica male team were 3-1 winners. All sets being close encounters with the first set a close 25-23 in Jamaica’s favour despite losing the second set 18-25. In game 2, the Bahamians won 3-2 with only the final set being won by more than 6 points.

On day 2, the Jamaicans romped to 3-0 and 3-1 victories. the second game being a clsoe encounter.

The Jamaican female team also performed well. On day 1, Jamaica won both games taking the first in 3-1 and the second 3-0. On day 2, it was more of the same though the games were more intense. The first game was won 3-2 and the second 3-1.

It will be an interesting Championship based on teh performances by both teams. Though the Jamaicans were not always fully focussed, with improvements great things are expected.

After the shocker of a 100M that saw her exclusion from that event. Veronica Campbell-Brown made good on efforts to get in on the 200M card. Leaving nothing to chance, Campbell-Brown ran the race of her life to personal best and to win in 21.94s. She was chased down the track by Kerron Stewart who also ran a personal best at 21.99s and Sherone Simpson who ran 22.11s, all well below Olympic A standard.

“I am very proud because my training is going excellent, I always wanted to run under 22 seconds and I just executed very well from start to finish.”, Campbell-Brown was quoted as saying

We had gotten the warning before by her coach but many didn’t expect the performance that Kerron Stewart put in and what it meant for Jamaican track and field. Running a personal best of 10.80s to top a field of top flight Jamaican sprinters. Even world famous Veronica Campbell-Brown missed making the cut as she could only muster a fourth place finish in 10.90s which before this was a world leading time. Rounding out the qualifying positions were Shelly-Ann Fraser 10.85s and Sherone Simpson 10.87s.

The showdown that many were expecting between the two fastest men did not materialize. Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell did exactly what they said they were going to do, qualify but not race each other. The pair were obviously a cut above the rest of the field, jogging comfortably to a 1-2 finish with Bolt winning in 9.85s. It was clear from looking on though that both Asafa and Bolt had turned off the jets when they had asserted their dominance. Michael Frater was third in 10.04s.

Dayron Robles showed that his recent world record run was no fluke by posting 12.96s in the recently concluded 110m hurdles event at the Lille Metropole yesterday. This was Robles second race since his world record run in Ostrava. In the race Petr Svoboda of the Czech Republic was second and Ukraine’s Sergey Demdyuk was third

Sensei Peter Warren is the latest recipient of the prestigious 7th Dan (Shichidan) Black belt. He was promoted to the rank at the 42nd Annual International Shotokan Karate Federation (ISKF) Master Camp held in Philadelphia from June 6-13.

Group A
Cuba
Guatemala
Trinidad & Tobago
USA

Group B
Canada
Honduras
Jamaica
Mexico

Group C
Costa Rica
El Salvador
Haiti
Surinam

Rnd 2 Netherlands Antilles - Haiti 0:1
Rnd 2 El Salvador - Panama 3:1
Rnd 2 Guyana - Surinam 1:2
Rnd 2 Bermuda - Trinidad & Tobago 0:2
Rnd 2 Barbados - USA 0:1
Rnd 2 Canada - St. Vincent & The Grenadines 4:1

Asafa Powell marked his return from injury with a sizzling 9.96s run in Trinidad this weekend at the National Senior Open Championships at the Hasely Crawford Stadium. He ran the fastest time for the meet in his semis ahead of Richard Thompson 10.11s.

Powell was racing for the first time since his pectoral muscle injury. Paul Doyle, Powell’s manager, said “We just wanted him to get one race in before the trials (Jamaica Championships”. Powell will now turn his attention to Saturday’s 100M final against Bolt, who last month broke the world record.