PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Olympic silver medallist Richard Thompson and Kelly-Ann Baptiste delivered fast 100-metre victories at Trinidad and Tobago National Track and Field Championship this past weekend.
Thompson, runner-up to Usain Bolt in the Beijing Olympics last summer, posted a personal season’s best 10.01 seconds to win a competitive men’s 100-metre final and Baptiste lowered her own national record with a blistering 10.94 triumph in the women’s race.
Finishing a shade behind Thompson was Aaron Armstrong in 10.03, while Marc Burns (10.04) and Darrel Brown (10.05) took third and fourth respectively in a race that had a tentative start when the starter did not call the runners back although Armstrong appeared to have false-started.
Baptiste retained her title in a new national record of 10.94 seconds, the first ever sub-11 clocking for a T&T woman.
Assisted by a legal wind of +1.7 metres per second, Baptiste whipped Semoy Hackett (11.19) and Ayanna Hutchinson (11.31) and is now the world’s second quickest this year behind Jamaican Kerron Stewart (10.92).
Former IAAF World Junior champion Renny Quow was a strong winner of the men’s 400, clocking 44.91 seconds to easily outgun Ato Modibo (45.99).
Olympians Candice Scott and Cleopatra Borel-Brown scored predictable victories.
Scott delivered a meet record 57.38 metres to win the women’s hammer and Borel-Brown won the shot at 17.44 metres.
Josanne Lucas captured the 100-metre hurdles in 13.19 seconds.
Antiguan Ayata Joseph won the men’s triple jump at 16.48 metres.
The meet will help pick the T&T squad for the IAAF World Championship in Berlin and Central American & Caribbean (CAC) Senior Championships in Cuba this summer.
