Jamaicans bag three more Commonwealth Games medals
KINGSTON, Jamaica — Jamaica added three more medals on Saturday morning’s penultimate session of track and field at the 23rd Commonwealth Games at Scotstoun Stadium in Glasgow, Scotland.
The team won two gold and a silver to take their tally to 15 medals, seven gold, three silver and five bronze as Jordan Scott and Dejanae Oakley obliged as favourites in the men’s triple jump and women’s 400m, with Fedrick Dacres taking the silver medal in the men’s discus throw.
Meanwhile, both Jamaican 4x100m relay teams advanced to their respective final set to be contested later on Saturday.
Scott, who is having his best season as a professional, improved on his fifth place finish four years ago in Birmingham as he became the first Jamaican man to win gold in the triple jump with a wind-aided 16.72m (2.3m/s).
He was joined on the medal podium by two Indian athletes. Praveen Chithravel took the silver medal with 16.58m (1.0m/s) and Selva Prabhu Thirumaran took the bronze with 16.52m (1.7m/s).
Oakley produced a blistering second half of her race to overhaul defending champion Sada Williams and run away to win easily in 50.21 seconds to win Jamaica’s fourth gold in the event and first since 2014 when Stephenie-Ann McPherson won.
Barbados’ Williams settled for second with 50.99 seconds while Nigeria’s Ella Onojuvwevwo took the bronze medal with 51.00 seconds.
Zandrion Barnes was seventh in the men’s 400m in 45.68 seconds.
Dacres, who won the gold medal in 2018 in Australia, threw 65.10m to continue Jamaica’s streak. The country has won a medal in the event in the last four stagings of the Commonwealth Games. Australia’s Matthew Denny defended his gold medal with a throw of 67.73m, with Lawrence Okoye of England third with 64.45m. National champion Ralford Mullings was fifth with 62.85m, getting one legal mark after he started with back-to-back fouls.
A strong team of Alana Reid, Jodean Williams, Lavanya Williams and Ashanti Moore clocked 42.74 seconds to lead the qualifying for the women’s 4x100m relay. The men’s team of Rohan Watson, Ackeem Blake, hurdles specialist Jerome Campbell and Christopher Taylor were fourth in their semi-final in 39.13 seconds and qualified for the final on time.
— Paul A Reid
