American dominates the field at JII meet

BY PAUL A REID Observer writer reidp@jamaicaobserver.com

Monday, May 03, 2010

A world-leading clearance and meet record of 2.00m by American Chaunte Howard Lowe highlighted the field events at Saturday's seventh annual Jamaica National Jamaica International Invitational at the National Stadium.

The 26-year-old American was a double winner as she also won the long jump in a personal best 6.61m, tying the meet record.

The meet, which had the largest turnout in its history, also saw meet and stadium records in the men's shot put as two-time IAAF World Indoors champion and Olympic Games silver medallist Christian Cantwell retain his title with a massive 21.50m heave.

Howard Lowe, the IAAF World Indoor bronze medallist in the high jump, who cleared the winning height on her third attempt before knocking down the bar three times at 2.02m, beat her previous season best 1.96m set in Des Moines, Iowa two weeks ago, as she easily beat the field on Saturday.

After passing at the opening height of 1.75m and then 1.80m, she had one failure as she showed her class in the field as her compatriot Sharon Day was second with 1.85m, the same mark as Jamaica's National Record holder Sheree Francis.

In the long jump she got off to a flying start, posting the winning mark on her first attempt before jumping once more to post 6.44m.

Two other Americans Rhonda Watkins (6.57m) and Fummi Jimah (6.53m) took second and third place, respectively, while UTech's Salcia Slack was fifth with a season best 6.02m, while former national champion Chelsea Hammond was seventh in 5.56m.

Cantwell, who had a season best 21.69m coming in to the meet, broke his meet record (21.16m) twice on Saturday.

He first broke the one year-old record on his third throw when the shot put landed at 21.37m before pushing it further to 21.50m on his final attempt.

The pair of Americans Cory Martin and Noah Bryant were second and third, respectively, with 20.82m and 20.07m.

Jamaica's National Record holder Dorian Scott was fourth with a sub-par 19.68m, passing on his two final attempts. UTech's Raymond Brown was seventh with a best throw of 17.04m, Decathlete Maurice Smith had one throw posting 15.99m, while Calabar High schoolboy Ashinia Miller threw 15.48m.

Americans Joe Kindred and Dusty Jonas tied in the men's high jump with a mark of 2.30m, both clearing 2.10m, 2.15m and 2.20m on their first attempts before knocking down the bar at 2.25m on all three tries.

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American dominates the field at JII meet