Danielle Williams runs 7.86secs 60m hurdles PB
World Champion Danielle Williams equalled her personal best 7.86 seconds when she won the women’s 60m hurdles event during Sunday’s American Track League meet at the Randal Tyson Center at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Williams, who improved to joint third in the world, was the only Jamaican winner at the meet, but former Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) Champs double gold medal winner for Calabar High School, Rajay Hamilton, ran a big personal best one minute 47.57 seconds, fourth best-ever by a Jamaican man for the indoors 800m and fastest in 24 years.
Meanwhile, Chrissann Gordon opened her season running 52.06 seconds for second in the women’s 400m that was won by American Shamir Little in a personal best 50.57 seconds with Mexican Paola Moran third in 52.78 seconds, also a personal best.
Williams, who had led the preliminaries with 7.90 seconds, dominated the final, getting off to a good start and crossed the line ahead of second-placed American Tonea Marshall who clocked 7.89 seconds and Cindy Sember of the United Kingdom third with 8.01 seconds.
Hamilton, who won the Class One 800m/1,500m double at the ISSA championships in 2014, lowered his personal best twice in two weeks after he ran 1:49.02 minutes at the Tiger Paw Invitational at Clemson University on February 13 before his improved run on Sunday.
His time saw him jump from 12th place on the Jamaican rankings and he now trails only three men — national record holder Alex Morgan, who ran 1:46.70 minutes in Indianapolis in March 1996, Clive Terrelonge with 1:47.30 minutes in Barcelona, Spain in March 1995 and Mario Vernon-Watson who ran 1:47.33 minutes in Boston in 1997.
— Paul Reid