Distin strikes Commonwealth gold in high jump
Lamara Distin on Saturday won the women’s high jump at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England for her first major senior international gold medal.
The two-time NCAA Division One champion and NACAC Under-23 champion jumped 1.95m to beat World Championships gold medallist Eleanor Patterson of Australia, while compatriot and national champion Kimberly Williams was third.
After starting at the second height of 1.76m, Distin had one blemish at 1.92m which she cleared on her second try before clearing 1.95m on her first attempt.
Patterson, who won in Eugene, Oregon a month ago with 2.02m, failed all thee times at 1.95m while Williamson also failed to get past that height and got the bronze on countback.
The women’s 4x100m relay team also qualified for the final after winning their heat in 43.66 seconds with the team of Kemba Nelson, Nattalliah Whyte, Remona Burchell and 400m specialist Romesha McGregor.
Meanwhile, Yona Knight Wisdom qualified for the 3 metres springboard diving final after finishing second in the preliminaries with 446.85 points, just 9.80 off leader Shixin Li of Australia. The final will be contested later in the day.