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.

There are many who believe the single most exciting sprinting event this season may be the Jamaican Nationals. Jamaica currently has the world’s two fastest athletes over 100M competing for spots on the roster. Additionally you have the fastest woman this year running against her main local rival who seems bent on getting the best of her. Veronica Campbell-Brown is arguably Jamaica’s most consistent athlete for some time and has seen many challenges against her fail but there are those who will tell you Sherone Simpson may be her strongest yet. All those questions will be put to the test and answered on June 28th when Jamaica’s Olympic Trials gets underway.