Blackwood PADUA, Italy, CMC:
JAMAICA'S NEW US Collegiate 400-metre hurdles champion Dean Griffiths scored his first win in Europe this summer when he claimed a photo-finish victory in the event on Sunday.
Griffiths edged South African Alwyn MyBurg and led a cluster of Jamaican top-three finishes at the European Athletic Association (EAA) Permit Meet.
Griffiths and Myburgh both clocked 50.01 seconds before the photo-finish camera gave victory to Griffiths, who won the NCAA title in Sacramento last month. Jamaican Neil Gardner finished third in 50.16.
Jamaica's national 100m champion, Asafa Powell, ran 10.32 seconds for the runner-up spot in the men's 100m behind American Justin Gatlin (10.32) in another photo-finish result. The race was run into a minus 1.6 metre-per-second head wind.
Jamaican Julien Dunkley, who won the 2003 NCAA Indoor 60m title in Arkansas in March, was fifth in 10.54.
Kenny Brojenburr of the United States won the 200m in 21.06, with Jamaican Ricardo Williams (21.08) second against a 3.0 mps wind. Dunkley was fifth in 21.38.
Davian Clarke (45.82) and Brandon Simpson (45.87) were third and fourth respectively in the men's 400m, won by American world leader Tyree Washington in 45.18.
Cuba's Yunier Hernandez (13.46) won the men's 110-metre hurdles ahead of his teammate and Olympic champion Anier Garcia (13.57), with Jamaican Maurice Wignall (13.67) third.
Cuban Olympic champion Ivan Pedrosa won the long jump at 8.31 metres.
Sandie Richards, Jamaica's former World Indoor 400m champion, finished seventh in the one-lap run in 53.66, behind Nigerian Olabisi Afolabi (51.53).
American Jennifer Toomey (2:03.92) won the women's 800m, in which Jamaican Mardrea Hyman was second in 2:04.98, and Jamaican Toni-Ann Doyley (13.28) was third in the 100m hurdles behind Cuban Yahumara Neira (12.96).
