Defending IAAF 100m champion and double Olympic 200m champion Veronica Campbell-Brown made her long-awaited start to the 2009 season on Saturday with two wind-aided runs at a low-profile meet held at the National Training Centre in Clermont, Florida close to where she resides.
Campbell-Brown, whose preparations for next month’s National Trials and the IAAF World Championships in Germany was interrupted by a toe infection, won the women’s 100m open in a wind-aided 10.81 seconds (+3.2 m/s).
Earlier in the day, she had won her qualifying heat in 11.09 seconds, which was also helped by winds just over the allowable 2.0m/s limit.
The NTC Classic Track and Field Meet, is a USTF sanctioned meet.
Reports from her agent Claude Bryan were that, Campbell-Brown was pleased with the times and her run and she was eagerly looking forward to defending her title at this Saturday’s Reebok Grand Prix at the Ichan Stadium in New York.
Campbell-Brown won the 100m last year, in 10.91 seconds, beating the Americans Marshevet Hooker (10.94 seconds) and Muna Lee (10.97) seconds in a close finish.
Campbell-Brown missed the earlier part of the season including three meets – the Texas Relays, the Jamaica International Invitational in early May and the Adidas Classic in Carson, California last weekend due to an infection to on of her left toes which kept her of the track for five weeks.
Despite returning to training in May, her coach Lance Brauman decided to keep her out of the Adidas meet, "more out of caution".
As the defending champion, Campbell-Brown has an automatic berth in the 100m at the World Championships and it is still uncertain if she will run both sprint events at the Trials to be held June 26-28.
