100M Men’s
1st Dexter Lee JAM 10.40

100M Women
3rd Sheniqua Ferguson BAH 11.52

200M Men’s
2nd Nickel Ashmeade JAM 20.84

200M Women’s
1st Sheniqua Ferguson BAH 23.24
2nd Meritzer Williams SKN 23.40
3rd Janelle Redhead GRN 23.52

400M Men’s
2nd Kirani James GRN 45.70

400M Women’s
3rd Susana A. Clement CUB 52.36

100M Women’s Hurdles
2nd Shermaine Williams JAM 13.48
3rd Belkis Milanés CUB 13.49

110M Men’s Hurdles
3rd Keiron Stewart JAM 13.51

400M Men’s Hurdles
3rd Amaurys R. Valle CUB 49.56

400M Women’s Hurdles
2nd Janeil Bellille TRI 56.84

High Jump Women’s
3rd Lesyani Mayor CUB 1.86

Triple Jump Men
2nd Osviel Hernández CUB 16.90

Triple Jump Women
1st Dailenys Alcántara CUB 14.25
2nd Josleidy Ribalta CUB 13.85

4×100M Men’s
2nd Jamaica Junior
(Oshane Bailey; Dexter Lee; Nickel Ashmeade; Yohan Blake) JAM 39.25

4×100M Women’s
2nd Jamaica Junior
(Shawna Anderson; Kaycea Jones; Gayon Evans; Jura Levy) JAM 43.98

It seems there is no stopping him this year as Usain Bolt stamped his authority on the 200M at the recent Athens Grand Prix when he won the event in a world leading 19.67s. Running with a 0.5m/s tail wind, Bolt finished a half a second ahead of his nearest rival, Antiguan Brendan Christian who was second in 20.36. Zimbabwe’s Brian Dzingai was third in 20.45s.

“I am very satisfied with my performance,” Bolt said after his win.

“The crowd helped me a lot. I feel sure I will be very strong at the Olympic Games,” added the 21-year-old.

200m - Usain Bolt - 19.67s

Just when everyone thought he was back and raring to go, Asafa Powell is yet again sporting another injury prior to the Olympics. Powell pulled out of his heat at the IAAF Golden League meet after experiencing a groin cramp coming out of the blocks. He managed to limp across the line in 10.19s to finish fifth in the heat but passed on sprinting in the final. His team mates Nesta Carter and Michael Frater, however, are featured in the final.

Jamaica’s Dexter Lee continued the trend of excellence in the Jamaican track and field program when he mined a gold in the 100M at the 12th IAAF World Junior Championships. Lee is only the third Jamaican male to do so, Michael McDonald and Usain Bolt being the others. Lee won in 10.40s with South African Wilhelm van der Vyver second and world leader Terrell Wilks of the United States rounding out the top three.

“The conditions were not in our favour, but I just went out there and did my best said Lee. Lee recovered from a bad first round heat from which he advanced as one of the fastest losers to reach the final. I just went out there, stayed relaxed and executed well because I knew I could win commented Lee.

It was a very eventful meet as there were thrills, spills and upsets at the Scotiabank sponsored Olympic Trials in Nassau, Bahamas. Not the least of the hotly anticipated events was the showdown in the men’s 400M where Chris Brown, 2007 World Champion faced off with Andretti Bain the 2008 NCAA 400M champion. Brown got the better of Bain with a run of 45.43s while Bain came in at 45.53s. Michael Mathieu was third in 45.72.

Also on form was Derrick Atkins who won his 100M sprint in 9.97s. Leaving much of the field behind him, Atkins asserted his dominance on the local competition and showed that he was very much in contention for a medal in Beijing for the event. Shamar Sands would not be outdone after breaking the Bahamian record for the 110M hurdles with a run of 13.44s. Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie will also be on the Beijing team after placing first in the 200M and second in the 100M. Ferguson-McKenzie clocked 11.22s behind Chandra Sturrup’s 11.14s. Ferguson-McKenzie was pushed hard to the tape by the up and coming Sheniqua Ferguson, they clocked a season’s best 22.82s and 22.85s respectively.

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

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.