BECKFORDMOSCOW, Russia (CMC):
Jamaica's former Olympic and World Championship medallist James Beckford made an unexpected early exit from the 11th IAAF World Indoor Track and Field Championship with a tame first round effort in the men's long jump yesterday morning.
Beckford, silver medallist at the last World Indoors in Budapest two years ago, posted a best effort of 7.78 metres in Group A and missed a top-eight spot for the final.
Wilting five-time champion Ivan Pedrosa, of Cuba, also missed out.
In other events, the in form Caribbean trio of Alleyne Francique, the defending champion, Davian Clarke, and Chris Brown, advertised solid form in the 400-metre preliminaries, while Trecia Smith led a cluster of other Caribbean athletes advancing from the preliminaries.
STRUGGLED
One of the world's best in the past decade, having won World (Outdoor) Championship silver medals in 1995 and 2003 and Olympic silver in 1996, Beckford was expected to prevail in the preliminaries, but struggled.
Pedrosa, bothered by injury in recent years, could only manage 7.27 metres in the Group B flight and was also eliminated.
Smith, Jamaica's world outdoor champion in Helsinki last year, had a final jump 14.15 metres to advance in the women's triple jump, while Cuba's Yargelis Savigne used a personal best 14.52 metres to lead Russia's defending champion Tatyana Lebedeva (14.37) into the final on Saturday.
Christine Arron of France had turned in the fastest performance of the morning after her comfortable 7.16 win in the second of five first-round heats. But in the final late yesterday, she faltered at the big moment and missed a medal, finishing fourth in 7.13 seconds as Americans Me'Lisa Barber and Lauryn Wil-liams shared the top two spots, both clocking a world leading 7.01 seconds.
The photo-finish showed Barber a narrow winner over Williams, with Belgium's Kim Gevaert third in a national record 7.11.
In the men's 60 metres, American Leonard Scott won gold in a world-leading 6.50 seconds, edging Russian Andrey Yepishin (6.52) and American Terrence Trammell (6.54).
In the preliminaries, Jamaican Lerone Clarke (6.71) and Martinique-born Ronald Pognon (6.67) had survived the first round. Clarke later missed out on a spot in the final in spite of a personal best 6.66 seconds that landed him third in semi-final heat two behind Trammell (6.58) and Pognon (6.63). Pognon, a former CARIFTA Games 200-metre champion, placed sixth in the final in a season's best 6.61 seconds.
Grenada's Francique led the trio of English-speaking Caribbean winners booking semi-final spots in the men's 400 metres. Francique won heat two in 46.79 seconds, ahead of Poland's Marcin Marciniszyn (46.88).
CLARKE WON HEAT
Bahamian Brown (46.64) and Jamaican Davian Clarke (46.37) also won their heats. Clarke, who was the silver medallist behind Francique at the Budapest World Indoors two years ago, was the third fastest in the preliminaries, after Botswana's California Molefe (45.74) and Russian Dmitriy Petrov (46.29). Dominica's Chris Lloyd ran a season's best 47.33 but failed to advance.
In the women's 800-metre first round, six-time champion Maria Mutola, of Mozambique, logged the quickest time of two minutes 02.33 seconds in winning heat one, where Guyana's Marian Burnett finished sixth in 2:07.18 and failed to advance.
Jamaican Kenia Sinclair (2:03.94) placed second in her heat behind Russian Olga Kotlyarova (2:03.75) and is the seventh fastest going into today's semi-finals.
Bahamian Christine Amertil and Jamaican Novlene Williams were the only Caribbean runners advancing in the women's 400 metres and reigning Commonwealth Games champion Aliann Pompey was among those eliminated.
Williams ran 51.57 seconds for second in heat one behind Bulgaria's Vania Stambolova, who was the quickest of the evening at 51.04 seconds, and Amertil (52.33) was also runner-up in her heat, won by the Jamaica-born American Sanya Richards (52.25). Pompey was fourth in that race in 53.72.
Jamaican Ronetta Smith also had a failed outing, clocking 53.57 for fourth in heat two.
