Campbell-Brown, the classy Jamaica sprint queen, established a new meet record with a time of 22.32 seconds at Hershberger Track in Memorial Stadium.
“The meet record was on my mind before I warmed up because it has been here for a long time,” said Campbell-Brown, the two-time defending Olympic 200m champion. “And I felt like things were going great, and I should go for it.”
Campbell-Brown had a quick start, ran a smooth curve, and finished strongly to erase the previous mark of 22.59 secs which was set by compatriot Aleen Bailey nine years ago. Minutes later, Campbell-Brown saw her husband Omar give a glimpse of his quality, when he clocked 20.84 secs to win the men’s 200.
Brown edged two-time Olympian and Antigua & Barbuda 100 record-holder Brendan Christian, who finished second in 20.93. “I knew Veronica would win (the 200),” said Brown. “And I knew I’d have to put in a good race to win. I’m happy that both of us got the victory.”
Fortune favoured only Brown however, when the pair lined-up in the 4×400 relays respectively.
Brown linked-up with Jordan Boase, Kirkland Thornton, and Erison Hurtault to win with the International All Stars in a time of 3:08.30 secs.
Campbell-Brown, along with Alycia Williams, Tanelah Campbell, and Shareefa Lloyd running for On-Track Management finished fourth in the women’s mile relay with a time of 3:41.10 secs. The International All Stars teams of Kineke Alexander of St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Valerie Brown, Shellene Williams, and Halimat Ismali won the race three mins, 35.65 secs.
The Jamaican team Sprint Tec, comprising Audra Segree, Anastasia LeRoy, Tamara Keane, and Kittitian Tiandra Ponteen, was second in 3 mins, 40.52 secs.
Fifth-placed Lincoln University from the American state of Missouri fielded an all-Caribbean line-up of Michelle Cumberbatch of the Bahamas, as well as Jamaicans Keniesha Jones, Anna Kay Campbell, and Nyoka Cole; they clocked 3 mins, 42.65 secs.
The Lincoln University squad, which is coached by Jamaica-born Victor Thomas, also won the women’s 4×100 relay invitational.
The team of Jamaicans Nyoka Cole and Sudian Davis, along with Trinidad & Tobago’s Semoy Hackett and the Bahamian Tia Rolle clocked 45.34 secs.
They prevailed over the team of Maliaka Scott, LeRoy, Segree, and Sahanee Gayle of GC Foster College from Jamaica, which finished second in 45.62. The highlight of the day, however, came in the men’s 100 dash, where a lightning-fast start enabled American Ivory Williams to record a world-leading time of 9.95.
Despite enduring two false-start resets, Williams flew out of the blocks on the third try, and kept pace for the full 100.
He crossed the finish line a quarter of a second ahead of the rest of the field, which included several Olympians, among them the Netherlands Antilles’ Churandy Martina, who finished a disappointing fourth in 10.29.
Martina’s compatriot Brian Mariano was fifth in 10.42, Antoine Adams of St. Kitts & Nevis was last of the seven that started in 10.66, with Christian ejected for a false start.
GC Foster captured the men’s 4×100 relay in 40.50 with a team of Jermaine Hamligon, Adolphus Levers, Taffe’ee Johnson, and Rasheed Dwyer.
