PADOVA, Italy, CMC – Nesta Carter grabbed a reassuring victory on Sunday at the Atletica Mondiale meet, leading a tiny group of Jamaican competitors that continued to fine tune for this year’s World Championships. Carter led a Jamaican sweep of the podium in the men’s 100 metres dash, when he clocked 10.10 seconds, finishing 21 hundredths of a second ahead of Michael Frater, with Jacques Harvey a further 0.4 secs behind for third. Carter, whose foreign training base is in the nearby city of Lignano, showed impressive form; blasting out of the blocks with a great start, and running smoothly to the finish line to equal the meet record set by American sprinter Coby Miller nine years ago. “I felt very well, and I tried to execute my race,” he said. “I want to improve my 9.78 personal best this year.” American Joanna Atkins spoiled the prospect of the women’s 200m also being swept by the Jamaicans.
Olympic 200 bronze medallist Kerron Stewart cruised to victory in 23.04, prevailing over her compatriot Anneisha McLaughlin (23.16), with Atkins grabbing third (23.26) ahead of Olympic 100 silver medallist Sherone Simpson (23.29).
Lansford Spence earned a hard-fought, narrow victory in the men’s 400, running into a strong wind in the final straight.
Spence ran 46.34, edging out Olympic finalist Martyn Rooney from Great Britain by 0.02, with South African Oscar Pistorius doing 46.65 for third. Reigning women’s sprint hurdles champion Brigitte Foster-Hylton of Jamaica, assured of a wild card, non-conditional entry for next month’s World Championships, continued her fight to get fit, following an early season injury.
She finished fifth, clocking 13.29 in a race won by NCAA champion Nia Ali of the United States in a time of 12.98.
