Mixed fortunes for Jamaicans in Ostrava
• Blake gets closer to 10-second barrier • McLeod continues improvement • Tapper struggles to find her best
FORMER WORLD 100m champion Yohan Blake and Tokyo Olympic 4x400m bronze medallist Candice McLeod had top-three finishes and season’s best times as they continued preparations for the World Athletics Championships with an outing at the 61st Ostrava Golden Spike Meet in Ostrava, Czech Republic, yesterday.
Blake clocked 10.05 seconds to finish second in the men’s 100m, his fastest time this season, at the fifth event of the World Athletics Continental Tour. His previous best was 10.11 at the Velocity Fest meet in Kingston, Jamaica, on April 23.
The event yesterday was won by Great Britain’s Reece Prescod, who clocked a personal best of 9.93. Prescod’s compatriot Zharnel Hughes was third, also in 10.05.
Blake has been bugged by thg 10-second barrier this season, a mark he dipped below four times last year. He finished second in the 200m event at the Poznan Athletics Grand Prix on May 27 and clocked 10.18 to finish second in his 2022 Diamond League season debut in the 100m in Birmingham, England, on May 21.
Meanwhile, McLeod continued her improvement in the 400m, finishing second in a season’s best time of 50.38 seconds behind winner Natalia Kaczmarek of Poland, who clocked a personal best time of 50.16.
McLeod had a slim lead in the final stages of the race but Kaczmarek closed her down to take the win. It is McLeod’s third second-place finish this season and the second consecutive meet that she is setting a season’s best with weeks to go before the National Trials later this month. McLeod’s two wins this season have all come in Jamaica.
Tokyo Olympic 100m hurdles bronze medallist Megan Tapper finished sixth in the women’s 100m hurdles in a race that saw her go head-to-head with Tokyo Olympic champion Jasmine CamachoQuinn of Puerto Rico, who won the event in 12.56.
Pia Skrzyszowska of Poland finished second in a personal best time of 12.65, while 2019 World Champion Nia Ali of the United States finished third in 12.69. Tapper’s season’s best is 12.80, which she set in her season opener on April 23, 2022.
She failed to finish in the final of her last meet in Austria at the Liese Prokop Memorial in Austria on May 26 after finishing first in her heat in 13.02.