Tweet
The love still blooms!
Green lights for 400m
Published: Thursday | April 11, 2013
Michael O'Hara of Calabar (right) as he completes the curve in the Class 2 boys 200 metres final ahead of Raheem Chambers of St Jago and Devaughn Baker of Jamaica College on Day Five of Champs 2013. - Ian Allen/Photographer
FOTHERGILL
HYLTON
WILLIAMS
FRANCIS
MCPHERSON
The signs are good for a revival of Jamaica's fortunes in the men's 400 metres. In the last few weeks, our athletes have produced enough evidence to encourage those who long for a return to glory. On top of that, there was a sign last Saturday that the strong crew of Jamaican 400-metre women is about to admit a new member.
That sign came from Stephanie McPherson. The University of Technology (UTech) student-athlete hurried to victory at the Intercollegiate Championships in 50.78 seconds, the fastest time of the year in the world. That urgent run destroyed her old personal best of 51.64.
RECORD-BREAKERS
The record run moves McPherson up to 14th on the Jamaican all-time performance list. In real terms, she's the Jamaica number seven since some of those ahead of her - national record holder Lorraine Fenton, Grace Jackson, Sandie Richards, Juliet Campbell, Deon Hemmings, Nadia Davy and Tracy Barnes - are retired. World and Olympic silver medallist Sherika Williams leads the active list at 49.32 seconds.
At 24, McPherson has time on her side, since the average age of those active and ahead of her is 28.
Between them, Shericka, Novlene Williams-Mills and Rosemarie Whyte have put Jamaica in every major 400m since the 2007 World Championships when Novlene was third. Moreover, they've made Jamaica a fixture on the 4x400 podium. With them at the centre of affairs, the national record has fallen from three minutes 20.65 seconds, the winning time in the 2001 World Championships, to 3.18.71 for second place in the 2011 World Championships.
Even veteran observers were surprised at McPherson's breakthrough, but she is no bolt from the blue. She emerged as a prospect earlier in her collegiate career and had won the 400 hurdles in record time on the previous day. At the Milo Western Relays, she logged baton duty in 2.09.9 in the 4x800 and 51.7 in the 4x400. Later in February, at the Gibson Relays, she anchored a smart UTech team to gold in 50.8 seconds.
Those relays encouraged the view that Jamaica's male 400-metre runners are on the move again. The Racers - Allodin Fothergill, Riker Hylton, Peter Matthews and Edino Steele - broke a nine-year-old Gibson Relays 4x400 record with a solid run, three minutes 03.74 seconds.
GOOD SIGNS
The good signs had started in the heats with London Olympian Rusheen McDonald. He rushed to the fastest 4x400 relay split of the meet - 44.7 seconds for UTech.
At Boys and Girls' Championships, the records fell in the boys' Class Two and Three 400s. At the Carifta Games, Martin Manley of St Jago won the Under-17 gold medal after placing a close third in the revolutionary Class Two race.
That epic was won by Devaughn Baker of Jamaica College in 46.67 seconds, the first sub-47 by a Class Two boy, with Jaheel Hyde of Wolmer's edging Manley, 46.93 to 46.95, for the silver medal.
Javon Francis, Calabar's Class One champion, was second in a riveting Carifta Under-20 three-way battle. Francis' maximal effort earned him a personal best of 46 seconds flat. To crown everything, Lennox Williams, Omar McLeod, Jevaughn Minzie and Francis won the 4x400m in the record time of three minutes 05.68 seconds, with split times of 46.6, 46.8, 46.8 and 45.4, respectively.
To cap everything off, a Jamaican won the 400m at the NCAA indoor championships. Errol Nolan of the University of Houston joins Bert Cameron, Greg Haughton Roxbert Martin and Davian Clarke as winners of that title. All those men went on to reach Olympic finals.
BURY BAD MEMORY
Nolan might follow in their footsteps. That would bury the bad memory of waiting in vain for the baton in the 4x400m heats at the London Olympics in the wake of the breakdown for Jermaine Gonzales.
So the evidence is mounting. Jamaica could soon have another strong group campaigning in the men's 400m and the 1600m relay. Also coming forward is Stephanie McPherson. Life doesn't always travel in straight lines, but with her world-leading run of 50.78 points putting her in the fast lane, the green light is on.
- Hubert Lawrence has covered local and international athletics since 1987.
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/2...s/sports6.html
Green lights for 400m
Published: Thursday | April 11, 2013
Michael O'Hara of Calabar (right) as he completes the curve in the Class 2 boys 200 metres final ahead of Raheem Chambers of St Jago and Devaughn Baker of Jamaica College on Day Five of Champs 2013. - Ian Allen/Photographer
FOTHERGILL
HYLTON
WILLIAMS
FRANCIS
MCPHERSON
The signs are good for a revival of Jamaica's fortunes in the men's 400 metres. In the last few weeks, our athletes have produced enough evidence to encourage those who long for a return to glory. On top of that, there was a sign last Saturday that the strong crew of Jamaican 400-metre women is about to admit a new member.
That sign came from Stephanie McPherson. The University of Technology (UTech) student-athlete hurried to victory at the Intercollegiate Championships in 50.78 seconds, the fastest time of the year in the world. That urgent run destroyed her old personal best of 51.64.
RECORD-BREAKERS
The record run moves McPherson up to 14th on the Jamaican all-time performance list. In real terms, she's the Jamaica number seven since some of those ahead of her - national record holder Lorraine Fenton, Grace Jackson, Sandie Richards, Juliet Campbell, Deon Hemmings, Nadia Davy and Tracy Barnes - are retired. World and Olympic silver medallist Sherika Williams leads the active list at 49.32 seconds.
At 24, McPherson has time on her side, since the average age of those active and ahead of her is 28.
Between them, Shericka, Novlene Williams-Mills and Rosemarie Whyte have put Jamaica in every major 400m since the 2007 World Championships when Novlene was third. Moreover, they've made Jamaica a fixture on the 4x400 podium. With them at the centre of affairs, the national record has fallen from three minutes 20.65 seconds, the winning time in the 2001 World Championships, to 3.18.71 for second place in the 2011 World Championships.
Even veteran observers were surprised at McPherson's breakthrough, but she is no bolt from the blue. She emerged as a prospect earlier in her collegiate career and had won the 400 hurdles in record time on the previous day. At the Milo Western Relays, she logged baton duty in 2.09.9 in the 4x800 and 51.7 in the 4x400. Later in February, at the Gibson Relays, she anchored a smart UTech team to gold in 50.8 seconds.
Those relays encouraged the view that Jamaica's male 400-metre runners are on the move again. The Racers - Allodin Fothergill, Riker Hylton, Peter Matthews and Edino Steele - broke a nine-year-old Gibson Relays 4x400 record with a solid run, three minutes 03.74 seconds.
GOOD SIGNS
The good signs had started in the heats with London Olympian Rusheen McDonald. He rushed to the fastest 4x400 relay split of the meet - 44.7 seconds for UTech.
At Boys and Girls' Championships, the records fell in the boys' Class Two and Three 400s. At the Carifta Games, Martin Manley of St Jago won the Under-17 gold medal after placing a close third in the revolutionary Class Two race.
That epic was won by Devaughn Baker of Jamaica College in 46.67 seconds, the first sub-47 by a Class Two boy, with Jaheel Hyde of Wolmer's edging Manley, 46.93 to 46.95, for the silver medal.
Javon Francis, Calabar's Class One champion, was second in a riveting Carifta Under-20 three-way battle. Francis' maximal effort earned him a personal best of 46 seconds flat. To crown everything, Lennox Williams, Omar McLeod, Jevaughn Minzie and Francis won the 4x400m in the record time of three minutes 05.68 seconds, with split times of 46.6, 46.8, 46.8 and 45.4, respectively.
To cap everything off, a Jamaican won the 400m at the NCAA indoor championships. Errol Nolan of the University of Houston joins Bert Cameron, Greg Haughton Roxbert Martin and Davian Clarke as winners of that title. All those men went on to reach Olympic finals.
BURY BAD MEMORY
Nolan might follow in their footsteps. That would bury the bad memory of waiting in vain for the baton in the 4x400m heats at the London Olympics in the wake of the breakdown for Jermaine Gonzales.
So the evidence is mounting. Jamaica could soon have another strong group campaigning in the men's 400m and the 1600m relay. Also coming forward is Stephanie McPherson. Life doesn't always travel in straight lines, but with her world-leading run of 50.78 points putting her in the fast lane, the green light is on.
- Hubert Lawrence has covered local and international athletics since 1987.
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/2...s/sports6.html