Marion Jones stumbles to a last place finish in the women's 400m in a time of 55.03, in her first appearance since the 2004 Athens Olympics, at the Mount San Antonio College relays in Walnut, California on Sunday. - REUTERS
WALNUT, California, CMC:
JAMAICA'S OLYMPIC sprint champion Veronica Campbell ripped a wind-assisted sub-11 clocking to lead five Caribbean winners at the Mount San Antonio College (SAC) Relays on Sunday evening.
With a following wind of 2.8 metres per second, Campbell sped to victory in the women's Invitational 100 metres in a fast 10.98 seconds in spite of a sluggish start.
St. Vincent and the Grena-dines' Kineke Alexander, and Campbell's Jamaican colleagues Marvin Anderson, Aneita Denton, and Novlene Williams also registered wins at the popular early outdoor season meet at the Hilmer-Lodge Stadium, Mount San Antonio Community College.
Campbell, the Athens Olym-pics 200-metre champion and sprint relay gold medallist, quickly recovered from her tame start and demolished her opponents.
Halima DeCree (11.25) and reigning Olympic sprint hurdles champion Joanna Hayes (11.45) were closest to Campbell at the finish.
Anderson captured the men's Open 200 metres in a wind-assisted 20.36 seconds, beating John Woods (20.69).
Alexander ran 52.73 seconds to snatch victory in the women's University 400 in 52.73 seconds, easily topping Shaunte Thomas (54.12), Kou Luogon (54.25) and Jamaican Shellene Williams (53.33).
SOLID WINNER
Williams was a solid winner of the women's Invitational 400 that produced a miserable performance from American sprint star Marion Jones.
Clocking a near world-leading 51.49 seconds, Williams beat American Lashinda Demus (51.79) and Australian Jana Pittman (52.33) for a fine win in a time that was only 0.02 seconds off South African Heide Seyerling's 2005 world best.
Jones ran well early but faded badly down the stretch and finished a distant last in her first meet since the Athens Olympics. She eased towards the finish and clocked 55.03 seconds.
Although her specialties are the sprints and long jump, Jones has often used the 400 at the Mount SAC Relays as her season-opening race.
In the women's 800 metres, the in form Denton ran two minutes 03.94 seconds for a close win over Frances Santin (2:03.99), followed by Mishael Bertrand (2:04.45).
And there were runner-up finishes for Trinidad and Tobago's two-time sportswoman of the year Candice Scott and Barbadian Andrea Blackett.
Scott (68.08 metres) finished behind the American No.1 Erin Gilreath (68.88) in the women's hammer and Blackett, the 1998 Commonwealth champion, clocked 56.60 seconds as she chased the winner Beau Walker (56.43) in the women's 400 hurdles Invitational.
Jamaica's reigning Pan Am Games champion Michael Frater stopped the clock at 10.10 seconds for third in a wind-assisted men's Invitational 100 metres that saw Americans Aaron Armstrong (10.00) and Coby Miller (10.08) sweep the top spots.
World champion Perdita Felicien kicked off her outdoor season with a good 12.72 victory in the 100-metre hurdles, beating Virginia Powell (12.75).
The top performances of the meet was a sizzling 200-metre win for American Wallace Spearman, clocking 19.97 in the Invitational 200, aided by a legal 1.7 mps.
It was the first sub-20 clocking for the 20-year-old Spearman and it was also only the third time in athletics' history that the Northern Hemisphere had seen a sub-20 time as early as the month of April.
