Dejanea Oakley of the University of Georgia became the second Jamaican woman to go sub-49.00 seconds in the 400m after she ran a sublime personal best 48.92 seconds to win the event on Saturday’s final day of the South Eastern Conference Outdoor Championships held at Auburn University.

Oakley’s time is the new world leading and NCAA number 1 as she dipped under her previous best of 49.65 seconds and is now only behind Nickisha Pryce’s national record 48.57 seconds.

Oakley made up for her second place last year and is on course to defend her NCAA title. Her teammate Shaquena Foote was eighth in the 400m final is 51.02 seconds.

Also on Saturday, Gabrielle Matthews of the University of Florida became the ninth Jamaican women to run under 11,00 seconds for the 100m after she clocked a personal best and school record 10.97 seconds (0.5m/s) to win the women’s 100m at the SEC championships.

Matthews led after the first round on Friday and lowered her previous best of 11.11 seconds set six weeks ago.

Ralford Mullings of the University of Oklahoma won the men’s discus throw with 65.10m after he finished seventh last year with three Jamaicans filling the top three places.

The Alabama pair of Trevor Gunzell was second with 62.40m and Christopher Young was third with a season’s best 59.86m SB while Shaiquan Dunn of the University of Texas with a personal best 59.30m.

-Paul A Reid