J’cans Bailey, Kemp double winners at NCAA outdoor meets

Jamaicans Gabrielle Bailey of Kent state University and cesar Kemp of alabama state were double winners at their respective ncaa Division One outdoor championships that ended yesterday.

Bailey won the women’s shot put and discus throw events at the Mid-american Conference (MAC) at Miami University in Ohio, while Kemp won the men’s shot put and discus throw at the South West Athletics Conference (SWAC) championships at Prairie View A&M University in Texas.

Michaela Lewis of Alabama State set a new SWAC championships record in the women’s 800m, while Kobejordan Rhooms of Morgan State University won the Mideastern American Conference (MEAC) men’s triple jump hosted by North Carolina A&T University.

Bailey, the former St Jago High star, easily won the shot put with 16.79m and did the season double after she had also won the MAC indoor title.

It also made up for her third place in 2019, the last time the event was held, while former Immaculate High thower Kadian Clarke of Eastern Michigan threw 12.95m and failed to make it to the final.

On Friday, Clarke set a new Eastern Michigan record in the hammer throw when she finished fourth with 58.87m, beating the old record 58.16m set in 2012 by Lydia Gomez Diaz.

Bailey, who was second in 2019, moved up one place to take the discus throw with 55.91m.

At the SWAC championships, as they did in the indoors, Jamaican throwers dominated, taking the top three positions in the shot put and discus events.

Kemp, formerly of Calabar High, won the shot put with 16.86m with conference leader coming into the event, Deandre Fyffe of Arkansas Pine Bluff, taking second with a personal best 15.58m and Danniel Bailey also of Arkansas Pine Bluff taking third with 15.12m, also his personal best.

Kemp then produced his lifetime best 51.07m to take the discus throw, Fyffe, who was again the conference leader, was second 47.77m, the same mark as Bailey who got his second personal best of the championships.

Bailey won the men’s hammer throw that was contested on Thursday’s opening day of the three-day event, throwing a personal best 49.12m; Kemp was second with 46.09m and Fyffe third with 44.82m, both their best efforts ever.

In the women’s section, former Excelsior High athlete Joelle Stewart was fifth in the discus throw with 43.37m and seventh in the hammer throw with 43.75m

Also at the SWAC championships, Lewis, formerly of the Queen’s School, set a championship record 2 minutes 05.80 seconds to win the women’s 800m, under the old record of 2:06 50 seconds while former Edwin Allen runner Aneisha Ingram of Alabama A&M University was seventh in 2:20.94 seconds.

Former Wolmer’s Boys’ runner Kevin Smith of Alabama

State was second in the men’s 800m in 1:54.40 seconds.

Former Queen’s School runner Tatyanna Mckenzie of Arkansas Pine Bluff got two second-place finishes in the 200m and 400m races, both in new personal best times.

Mckenzie ran 23.64 seconds (1.6m/s) for the half-lap race then 54.54 seconds for the 400m.

In the MEAC championships, Rhooms, formerly of Cornwall College, improved on his second place in the triple jump from 2019 after jumping 15.02m (-2.5m/s) to win the triple jump, adding to the indoor title he won in 2020.

He also improved his positions in the high jump, placing second with 1.98m and the long jump where he was fourth with 6.80m (-2m/s).

Kiara Grant of Norfolk State fell one spot in the women’s 100m from 2019 when she was third in a wind-aided 11.32 seconds (3.1m/s) and eighth in the 200m in 25.84 seconds (0.9m/s).

Former Cornwall College runners Brenton Shippy of

South Carolina State and Tarique Gooden of Morgan State University, both freshmen, were sixth, respectively, in the men’s 100m and 400m hurdles finals.

Shippy, who finished high school in Florida, ran 10.66 seconds (0.1m/s) in the final yesterday after he had run a personal best 10.39 seconds (1.1m/s) in preliminaries on Friday, the second fastest by a Jamaican junior male so far this year.

Gooden, last year’s COCAA Western Champs winner, ran 54.91 seconds yesterday after he had run 54.44 seconds in Friday’s first round.

Meanwhile at the Arkansas Twilight on Friday, Daszay Freeman set a meet record 13.01 seconds (1.1m/s) to win the 100m hurdles.

Phillip Lemonious had run 13.76 seconds in the preliminaries of the 110m hurdles (1.8m/s) but did not show up for the finals while Jeremy Farr was second in the men’s 400m in 47.28 seconds.