Love, Bailey among Jamaican award winners

THROWERS Shanice Love of Florida State University (FSU) and Gabrielle Bailey of Kent State were among four Jamaicans who were honoured by their respective conferences for outstanding performances last weekend.

Love, a fifth-year senior, was named the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Women’s Field Co-performer of the Week; Bailey was named the Mid-american (MAC) Women’s Field Performer of the Week; Phillip Lemonious of the University of

Arkansas was named the South-eastern Conference Men’s Freshman of the Week; while Dominique Clarke of the University of Albany was named Most Outstanding Rookie at the American East outdoors championships.

Love, a former NCAA (National Collegiate Athletics Association) runner-up and many-time ACC champion, threw an Acc-leading 59.82m to win at the North Florida Invitational, the third best in the NCAA.

She beat compatriot Shadae Lawrence, who finished second.

Bailey, the former St Jago High athlete who is favoured to win double gold at this weekend’s MAC outdoors championships, set top marks in both the discus and shot put marks in the MAC at the Akron field events qualifier.

She moved to second in Kent State history with a huge personal record 58.36m on her first discus throw attempt on Tuesday, number seven in the NCAA, and then won the shot put Saturday at the Mountaineer Twilight with a season-best heave of 16.38m.

Lemonious, formerly of Calabar High, finished third in the 110m hurdles at a meet at Arkansas with a time of 13.62 seconds in his first race of the season.

His time was seventh best on the Arkansas all-time list, best by a freshman in the SEC, and second best by a freshman in the NCAA.

Clarke, formerly of Papine High, won the women’s 100m at the American East championships and was part of the winning women 4x100m relay team.