Jamaica ends Indoor Champs with two medals

BY KAYON RAYNOR Senior staff reporter raynork@jamaicaobserver.com

Monday, March 15, 2010

TWO-TIME Olympic 200-metre champion Veronica Campbell-Brown produced a lifetime best of 7.00 seconds to take gold in the 60-metre final as Jamaica ended the 13th IAAF World Indoor Championships with two medals on yesterday's third and final day in Doha, Qatar.

The nation's other medal -- bronze -- came in the women's 4x400m relay.

Reacting sixth to the gun, Campbell-Brown, who was competing indoors for the first time since 2006, produced a brilliant burst of speed in the last 30 metres of the race to power past LaVerne Jones-Ferrette of the Virgin Islands, who entered the championships as the world leader. Campbell-Brown's winning time of 7.00secs makes her the joint seventh fastest woman of all-time along with Nelli Cooman of the Netherland and second best Jamaican behind Ottey's 6.96 achieved in 1992.

Campbell-Brown, who joined Merlene Ottey (1995) as the only Jamaican women to win a 60m gold, was ecstatic about her achievement, even as Bob Marley's One Love song blared in the background in the wake of her victory.

"I knew the race would be very competitive. I am very confident and mentally focused. I came here with a mindset that I would come out and execute," said Campbell-Brown, who started training with her new coach Anthony Carpenter in Atlanta last November.

"I have had a great training despite the weather in Atlanta, and I am very grateful. Nothing else I could ask for. It is a very short race, by far the most technical. I wanted to train hard and pray for good health. I feel blessed. I will celebrate with my friends," added Campbell-Brown, who remains the only athlete to win 100m gold medals at the World Youth, World Junior and Senior levels. Jamaica's other competitor in the final, Sheri-Ann Brooks, finished fifth in a personal best 7.14secs behind Jones-Ferrette 7.03 and American Carmelita Jeter 7.05, who took the silver and bronze, respectively.

In the meantime, the quartet of Bobby-Gaye Wilkins, Clora Williams, Davita Prendergast and Novlene Williams-Mills showed much determination by clocking a national record of 3 minutes 28.49 seconds to take bronze in the women's mile relay. Individual 400m semi-finalist Wilkins, who handed over the baton before the 400m winner Jamaican-born American Debbie Dunn on the first leg, was elated to help Jamaica win their second medal of the championships.

"I know Debbie Dunn would be a good competitor, so I just went out there and competed to the best of my ability and it paid off well for the team," she said.

Williams-Mills, who failed to finish the 400m final after stumbling on the 200-metre mark on Saturday, was relieved after anchoring Jamaica to their fourth mile-relay medal after 1993 (gold), 2001 (silver) and 2003 (silver).

"We came here to present (Jamaica) as a team and as a team we did pretty good. We are going to pick medals at the end of the day, so it is a success. Now we go back home and will work hard to improve our personal records," Williams-Mills said.

The American team, which was anchored by Allyson Felix to the gold in a world-leading 3 minutes 27.34secs, followed by Russia with a season best 3 mins 27.44 for the silver.

The men's team of Edino Steele, Sanjay Ayre, Lanceford Davis, and Ricardo Chambers, despite entering the final with the second-fastest time of 3 minutes 06.03secs, failed to finish the race after Ayre collided with Andretti Bain on the second leg. America won the gold in a world-leading 3 mins 03.40secs ahead of Belgium 3:06.94 and Britain 3:07.52.

Jamaica's only other competitor yesterday, Maurice Wignall, placed sixth in the 60m hurdles final despite clocking a season best 7.60secs. Olympics 110m hurdles champion Dayron Robles of Cuba collected the gold in a championship record 7.34 followed by American Terrence Trammell, who did a new national record of 7.36, while his compatriot David Oliver took the bronze in a career best 7.44secs.

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Jamaica ends Indoor Champs with two medals