Three more medals give Jamaica record haul
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BY PAUL BURROWES
Observer staff reporter
Monday, July 22, 2002
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| Simone Facey celebrates after anchoring her 4x100m team to gold in a meet and national junior record of 43.40 seconds yesterday. |
A scorching third leg from Aneisha McLaughlin in the women's 4x100m relay propelled Jamaica to their second gold medal in a meet and national junior record time as the curtains came down on the 9th IAAF World Junior Championships at the National Stadium last night.
The Jamaicans also grabbed silver medals in the men's sprint relay and the men's 4x400m to end the championships -- described by IAAF president Lamine Diack as the most successful ever -- with a record 11 medals (two gold, five silver and four bronze).
This bettered the nine-medal haul in the 1992 World Junior Championships when Jamaica walked away with three gold, three silver and three bronze medals.
The gold medal quartet of Sherone Simpson, Kerron Stewart, McLaughlin and 100m silver medalist, Simone Facey, posted 43.40 seconds, erasing the previous championship record of 43.48 set by Germany on July 31, 1988.
They also smashed the previous national junior mark of 43.69 established by the 1999 Pan American silver medalist team of Elva Goulboune, Aleen Bailey, Veronica Campbell and Lisa Sharpe on July 11.
Before a pulsating, near-30,000 (capacity) crowd, Simpson got off to a shaky start after false-starting. But Stewart on the second leg was able to cut the stagger before handing over the baton to McLaughlin in about fourth place.
McLaughlin, holding her form superbly, darted round the curve to give Facey the baton ahead of the pack. The anchor runner was then able to hold off USA's Marshavett Hooker for gold.
"I feel very proud and to see all the people in the stands cheering... I am excited. We planned that we were going for the world junior record (but) we are pleased with our performance," said Facey.
USA's anchor runner, Hooker, said: "The race was pretty good. You win some, you lose some. The Jamaican girls were pretty awesome and in this case the best team won."
In the 4x100 men's relay, the Jamaican sprint relay team broke their own national junior record when Winston Hutton, Orion Nicely, Yhann Plummer and Usain Bolt reduced the time from 39.38 set on Saturday to 39.15 yesterday.
But the USA showed their superiority, establishing a new world junior record of 38.92 seconds. The American quartet of Ashton Collins, Wes Felix, Ivory Williams and Willie Hordge broke the 19 year-old world junior record of 39.00 seconds set by compatriots Neil Jessie, Allen Franklyn, Stanley Blalock and Dennis Mitchell.
Trinidad and Tobago took the bronze sprint relay in a national junior record of 39.17 seconds. The team comprised Chevon Simpson, Marc Burns, Kevon Holder and Darrell Brown.
Jamaica's mile relay team of Sekou Clarke, Usain Bolt, Jermaine Myers and Jermaine Gonzales claimed silver in a new national junior record of 3:04.06 while the USA took gold in 3:03.71. The local boys laid to rest the old mile relay mark of 3:04.12 set in Lisbon, Portugal in 1994.
In the women's mile relay, the host team of Davita Prendergast, Sheryl Morgan, Carlene Robinson and twin sister Camille Robinson could only manage fourth. The USA won in a 2002 world-leading time and national junior record of 3:29.95 ahead of Great Britain 3:30.46 and Russia 3:30.72 -- the last two also being national junior records.
The fourth-placed Jamaicans ran a season's best 3:31.90.
Richard Phillips and Melaine Walker missed out on medals in the sprint hurdles which were affected by strong winds.
Walker finished fifth in the 100m hurdles won by Cuba's Anay Tejeda in 12.81 seconds (wind aided). Poland's Agnieszka Frankowska secured the silver in 13.16w ahead of Germany's Tina Klein 13.23w.
Phillips placed a better-than-expected fourth in 13.90w and the USA's Antwon Hicks charged to gold in 13.42 beating China's Dongpeng Shi 13.58 and Bahamas' Shamar Sands 13.67.
Walker said after her race: "I hit the hurdles real hard and it threw me off a bit but it is okay."
The Cuban gold medalist said: "It's very nice in Jamaica and it's a good place to win ..."
Richard Phillips in his comments said: "I just want to train harder. I want my trail leg to be much quicker and my lead leg to be more perfect. I need a little more aggression to get over the hurdles and I plan to work on that for the next season."
Spectators in the packed national stadium kept the festive atmosphere alive by applauding good performances irrespective of nationality. They punctuated the evening's performances with colourful, flag-waving 'mexican waves'.
A busted water pipe at gate eight in the bleachers, for a while, provided some concern for organisers last night. But the overall high quality organisation of the meet as well as the atmosphere and excitement could prompt the IAAF, the world governing body for track and field, to host some of their major meets in Kingston at what is now a world-class stadium facility.
The spectators seemed particularly appreciative of the Kenyans whom they noisily cheered on.
Kenya's Viola Kibiwoc won the women's 1500 metres in a personal best 4:12.57, while Morocco's Yassine Bensghir won in a personal best 3:40.72, the men's equivalent.
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