Thomas, Walcott golden in US meets
Sunday, January 27 2013
National sprinter, Reyare Thomas powered to victory in the Women’s 200m event on Friday, as day-one of the New Mexico Collegiate Invitational ran off on the school’s premises.
The Abilene Christian University student copped gold in 24.16 seconds. She defeated eventual runner-up Brianna Cromartie (24.22s) and third- placed Alishia Perkins (24.339s), both of New Mexico State. Rounding off the top five finishers were Shavine Hodged of Grand Canyon (24.34s) and Kayon Robinson of Adams State (24.61s) respectively.
Thomas’ school-mate, Osei Alleyne-Forte could only manage a 15th place overall in the Men’s 200m event. Thomas, a 2009 CAC 200m bronze receiver, was also scheduled to line-up in the Women’s 60m event yesterday, the second and final day of the meet. Alleyne-Forte and Olympic 4x400m bronze medallist, Jarrin Solomon were also listed to run in the 400m yesterday. Meanwhile, Elton Walcott, brother of Olympic javelin gold medallist Keshorn, also received top honours in the Men’s triple jump at the Tech Texas Masked Raider Open, which was held in Lubbock, Texas, on January 19.
The South Plains Junior College freshman leapt to gold with a distance of 15.59. He landed ahead of silver medallist Fabien Zavala of UCAI (15.40) and bronze receiver CJ Griggs of South Plains (15.24).
Additionally, Georgia University’s Hilenn James set a new personal best in the Women’s shot put on the first day of the Razorback Invitational in Fayetteville, Arkansas, on Friday. The youngster improved on her previous best of 16.54, established in the outdoor season last year. James’ best distance of 16.80 after her first attempt saw her lie in third place after the first three attempts.
However, Arizona’s Alyssa Hasslen produced a 16.85 throw in the fourth round and forced James to claim fourth spot. Winning the event was Tia Brooks of Oklahoma (18.06), silver was taken by Julie Labonte of Arizona (16.95) and Hasslen snatched third respectively.
Also, Shermund Allsop (Louisiana State University) advanced to the finals of the Men’s 60m after he was 11th overall in the preliminaries, clocking 6.90s.
Allsop was fourth in heat one. He was also 19th overall in the Men’s 200m in a time of 21.80s.
Sparkle Mc Knight was also listed to make her debut for Arkansas University in the Women’s 4x400m events yesterday. She and her Arkansas team of Regina George, Crishauna Williams and Gwendolyn Flowers were scheduled to do battle against several other US colleges.