Yohan Blake clocks 9.82 at Berlin meet
IAAF World Champion Yohan Blake continued to show his pedigree in his best ever season after equalling his three-day-old personal best 9.82 seconds with an easy win in the men’s 100m at the IAAF World Challenge meeting in Berlin, Germany yesterday.
Blake won by a handy margin over IAAF double bronze medallist Kim Collins, who had a season-best 10.01 seconds and set a new meet record, breaking the 9.86 seconds held jointly by Asafa Powell and American Maurice Greene.
Trinidad and Tobago’s Richard Thompson was third in 10.08 seconds, while Michael Frater was fourth in 10.12 seconds and Ainsley Waugh sixth in 10.23 seconds.
Blake, who had set his personal best while beating Powell at a meeting in Zurich on Thursday and was running his eighth legal sub-10.00 seconds time this season, was the only Jamaican winner on the programme as three Jamaicans finished behind Trinidad’s Kelly-Ann Baptiste in the women’s 100m event.
Sherone Simpson ran 11.24 seconds for second, ahead of Kerron Stewart (11.28 seconds) and Aleen Bailey (11.37) as Baptiste won with 11.15 seconds.
Allodin Fothergill, a World Championships 4x400m relay bronze medallist, was fourth in the men’s 400m in 46.12 seconds as Grenada’s teenaged World Champion Kirani James won easily in 45.33 seconds ahead of Costa Rica’s Nery Brenes (45.62 seconds) and another Grenadian Rondell Bartholomew was third in 45.82 seconds.
Davita Prendergast and Rosemarie Whyte were fourth and fifth, respectively, in the women’s quarter-mile in 51.39 seconds and 51.51 seconds as Russia’s Anastasiya Kapachinskaya won in 50.75 seconds ahead of American Francena McCrory (50.91 seconds) and another Russian Antonina Krivoshapka (51.27 seconds).
The other Jamaican taking part in the meet, intermediate hurdler Isa Phillips, was fifth in his event in 49.75 seconds as Trinidad’s Jehue Gordon ran a season-best 48.66 seconds to win.