Nugent lands second GST title

JAMAICA’S ACKERA Nugent has earned her second Grand Slam title of the Grand Slam Track (GST) series after a nippy 11.11-second 100-metre win at the Franklin Field stadium in Pennsylvania yesterday.

Nugent, the first Jamaican to win two Slams, had on Saturday, won the 100-metre hurdles in 12.44 seconds, delivering the first defeat of the GST series to Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, who finished the short hurdles race group in second place.

McLaughlin-Levrone, who had dominated the long hurdles race group in Kingston and in Miami, made the decision to step down to the sprints and showed she had some speed, though she could do nothing to stop Nugent from earning a perfect 24 points to claim her second consecutive title.

McLaughlin-Levrone, who was fifth in the 100-metre hurdles on Saturday in 12.70 seconds, ended second on 12 points, eight for yesterday’s second place where she clocked a creditable 11.21 seconds, and four for the day prior.

Another Jamaican, Megan Tapper was fourth in the race group, clocking 11.52 for sixth yesterday to go along with her 12.66-second finish for third on Saturday. She earned a total of nine points to finish behind the United States’ Tia Jones (10 points).

Danielle Williams, who won the first Slam in Kingston finished down the track in seventh.

Williams had some trouble with the final few hurdles in Saturday’s race, but did creditably, clocking a season’s best 11.44 seconds for fourth in yesterday’s 100 to earn seven points.

Williams’ points haul was only better than the United States’ Christina Clemons, who finished with two.

Again, Nugent provided the only joy for Jamaicans with Bryan Lvell earning 12 points for third in the men’s short sprints race group.

Levell was fifth in the 200 metres on Saturday with a 20.63-second clocking before finishing second in the 100 yesterday in 10.02.

Levell finished behind the pair of the United States’ Kenny Bednarek and Great Britain’s Zharnel Hughes.

Bednarek was winning his third Grand Slam, claiming the 200 metres on Saturday in 19.95 seconds and the 100 in a world leading, 9.86 yesterday to finish with a perfect 24 points.

Hughes was second in the 200 on Saturday, clocking 20.50 and third in the 100 yesterday in 10.05.

In the men’s long sprints, won by Great Britain’s Matthew Hudson-Smith, Jamaica’s Jevaughn Powell finished at the back of the pack with three points.

Powell was seventh in 400 metres on Saturday, running a season’s best 46.08, before an eighth-place finish in the 200 where he clocked 20.91.

Andrenette Knight and Rushell Clayton could not take advantage of McLaughlin-Levrone’s absence in the long hurdles, finishing fourth and sixth respectively.

Clayton, coming back from an injury she suffered in Kingston’s Slam, was fourth in yesterday’s 400 metres, clocking 53.17 and was fifth on Saturday over the one-lap hurdles in 55.14.

Knight, who was third on Saturday with her 54.86-second clocking, was third over 400 metres yesterday in 52.87.

The United States’ Jasmine Jones (16 points) claimed the GST title with a pair of second places good enough to get the better of countrywoman Anna Cockrell, who won on Saturday in 54.04, but was sixth yesterday in 53.35 for 15 points.

Assinie Wilson’s fifth-place finish in the 400 metres (46.24) yesterday did little to help him, the Jamaican ending the weekend’s long hurdles race group fifth with seven points. On Saturday he ran 49.68 seconds over the 400-metre hurdles for sixth.