7 months ago
23
SPECTATORS AT the Ashenheim Stadium at Jamaica College (JC) were left entertained as several of the nation’s top athletes delivered impressive performances yesterday at Velocity Fest 16.
The top performer of the day was the 400-metre hurdles national record holder Roshawn Clarke, who sped to a new personal best 44.98 seconds in the men’s 400m ‘A’ final.
The time marked his first sub-45 second clocking in the discipline and set a new meet record along the way.
Clarke, running from lane five, was fastest out the blocks and quickly ate up the stagger on those outside him.
Coming down the home stretch, he could not be caught as reigning 400m national champion Deandre Watkin finished second in 45.59, while Javier Brown of Swept Track Club was third in a personal best 45.62.
Another top performance, this time in the field events, came from Shawn-D Thompson, who won both the men’s long jump and the men’s triple jump in impressive fashion.
He started the day by registering his first distance over eight metres in the long jump this season, marking the sand at 8.02.
He got the better of David Tomlinson, 7.50, and Aubrey Allen, 7.36, who rounded off the top three.
Thompson followed up that performance by claiming the triple jump final in a new meet record and personal best of 16.61.
Thompson was left shocked after his performances, saying he had not intended to jump this far at this stage of his training.
“Well, it’s actually good to be honest, because I didn’t expect it, because I have been struggling with a particular injury for the past couple of weeks. But, going forward from this, I feel confident,” he told The Gleaner.
“I didn’t really take today as competition, so today was more like a training day for me,” he added.
Thompson explained, while the long jump is his pet event, he has been competing in the triple jumps as well as a way to practise his technique and learn to exercise more patience in his long jump execution.
“The triple jump is a part of my programme because I find that triple jump helps me to be patient. So that is why I am actually doing the triple jump today, because it actually helps a lot.”
Other top performances in the field came from Fedrick Dacres and Chad Wright, who went head-to-head in the men’s discus, with the former taking the win with a throw of 62.36 metres, edging out the latter, who managed 60.60.
Tio-Josh Mowatt finished third in the field with his best effort of 52.07.
English (US) ·