Pryce clocks fast 400m time at SEC Champs
NATIONAL 400 metres champion Nickisha Pryce was in blistering form at the weekend. She clocked a personal best 49.32 seconds to win the 400m final at the South East Conference (SEC) Championships at the Percy Beard Track in Gainsville, Florida.
Pryce, a student at the University of Arkansas, was one of five Jamaican winners at the meet. In the 400m, Arkansas swept the top three spots as Kaylin Brown was second in a personal best 49.47, and Amber Anning took third in 49.51.
Pryce’s time puts her second on the World Top list just behind Femke Bol of the Netherlands, who leads with 49.17. Pryce is also the joint second fastest ever Jamaican woman in the event with Shericka Williams, who also clocked 49.32 for her second-place finish at the 2009 World Athletics Championships in Berlin. Lorraine Fenton Graham is the national record holder with 49.30.
Former Hydel High star Brianna Lyston won the 100m at the meet. Lyston, competing for Louisiana State University, raced to a personal best 10.91 seconds to take the event ahead of Kaila Jackson (10.95) of the University of Georgia and teammate Thelma Davis, who was third in 11.01. Lyston’s winning time puts her at number three on the World Top List.
Lyston was also fourth in the 200m final in 22.37. McKenzie Long of the University of Mississippi won the event in 22.03. Long’s teammate, former Hydel hurdler Gabrielle Matthews, won the 400m hurdles in 55.12 seconds.
Wayne Pinnock, the world leader in the men’s long jump, and Romaine Beckford, both representing the University of Arkansas, also had wins at the meet.
Pinnock, who has a season’s best of 8.40m, easily took care of business, winning with 8.09m while Beckford cleared 2.22m to top the high jump.
Luke Brown, a Calabar High past student, got the fifth win for Jamaicans at the meet. Representing the University of Kentucky, he won the triple jump final with 16.40m. Former Jamaica College athlete Apalos Edwards, competing for Arkansas, was third with 16.14m.
Kai Chang, a former Calabar thrower now at the University of Florida, took second in the discus with 60.91m.
ATLANTIC CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIPS
At the Atlantic Conference Championships in Atlanta, Georgia, there were wins for Jamaicans Oneika Wilson, Marie Forbes, and Courtney Lawrence. All three athletes attend Clemson University.
Forbes, a Vere Technical past student, won the women’s hammer throw with a mark of 67.03m. She was also third in the discus with 55.99m.
Wilson, formerly of Hydel, captured the 100m hurdles in 12.87 seconds, and Lawrence, a former Petersfield High athlete, won the shot put with 19.95m.
At the Big 12 Conference in Waco, Texas, there were wins for former Clarendon College athlete Dejanea Oakley and Demar Francis, a Calabar past student.
Competing for the University of Texas, Oakley captured the women’s 200m in 23.00 seconds. Francis who attends Baylor University won the 400m in 45.44 seconds. Earlier, he was third in the 200m in 20.38.
Former Edwin Allen High sprinter Kevona Davis was third in the 100m in 11.32.