J’can Nia Robinson earns first team honours
FORMER CARIFTA Games medallist Nia Robinson earned her first American Athletics Conference team honours on Friday after she finished second in the women’s long jump at the indoor championships in Birmingham, Alabama.
Robinson, of the University of South Florida, jumped 6.28m — better than the previous meeting record 6.19m set in 2014 by Asha Ruth of Rutgers University as Funminiyi Olajide of Southern Methodist University won with 6.38m
On Thursday, Jamaicans Dugion Blackman and Shemar Chambers won their first indoor track and field conference titles for the men’s 800m and 200m, respectively, at the inaugural Colonial Athletics Association (CAA) indoor championships held in Virginia Beach.
Blackman, formerly of Jamaica College and now at Hampton University, won the 800m in a personal best 1:48.46 seconds after leading the preliminaries with 1:52.71 seconds.
Chambers, who attended St George’s College and Calabar High and who led the CAA Conference in the 200m with 20.96 seconds, ran 21.00 seconds to win the conference title, was second in the 400m in 46.37 seconds, and formed part of the 4x400m relay team that won the title.
Marie Forbes set a personal best and Clemson University programme record 22.41m for third place in the women’s weight throw at the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) indoor championships at the University of Louisville, Kentucky, on Thursday.
The mark beat the 22.30m set in 2013 by Brittney Waller and bettered her previous best of 21.94m set last month.
Defending champion Daniel Cope, also of Clemson, was third in the men’s weight throw with a season’s best 21.93m
Okera Myrie and Kiara Grant, both also of Clemson, ran personal best times to qualify for the women’s 200m final.
Myrie clocked 23.39 seconds and Grant ran 23.44 seconds to get past the first round on Thursday.
Meanwhile at the Big12 Championships at Texas Tech University, Demisha Roswell of Texas Tech qualified for the finals of the women’s 60m hurdles and the 60m, and will be joined in the latter by Kevona Davis of the University of Texas.
Kavia Francis of Baylor University also advanced in the women’s 400m.
Hurdles specialist Akera Nugent of the University of Arkansas qualified for the women’s 60m at the South-eastern Conference after running a personal best 7.22 seconds.
At the Big10 championships in Ohio, Antonio Hanson and Zidane Brown of Ohio State advanced to the men’s 400m final to be held today.
