Bahamian sprinter Shaunae Miller-Uibo (© Getty Images)
The stateside early-season results continue to impress as Olympic champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo produced the second-fastest time of her career in her first individual race of 2019.
Competing at the Tom Jones Memorial in Gainesville on Saturday (27), the Bahamian covered one lap of the track in 49.05. It’s the fastest time ever recorded before the month of June and is just 0.08 shy of the lifetime best she set last year.
Training partner and world indoor silver medallist Shakima Wimbley wasn't too far behind Miller-Uibo at the half-way point, but she was a long way back by the time she reached the finish line in 51.32.
Sprint hurdlers Grant Holloway and Christina Clemons also posted swift times in their specialist events. Six-time NCAA champion Holloway won the 110m hurdles in 13.25 (1.5m/s) while world indoor silver medallist Clemons recorded a wind-assisted 12.59 (2.3m/s) to win the 100m hurdles.
Competing off a shortened approach, world and Olympic champion Christian Taylor landed at a wind-assisted 17.13m (3.2m/s) to win the triple jump.
Japan’s 2015 world U18 champion Hakim Sani Brown won his 100m heat in a wind-assisted 10.06 (2.2m/s). In another heat, Kemar Hyman got the better of two-time IAAF Diamond League 200m champion Noah Lyles, 10.10 to 10.14 (1.8m/s).
Machel Cedenio, the fourth-place finisher at the 2016 Olympics, won the men’s 400m in 45.05, his fastest time since June 2017.
Duplantis close to six metres
European pole vault champion Armand Duplantis came close to producing the third six-metre vault of his career, but settled for victory at the LSU Invitational in Baton Rouge with 5.94m.
The 19-year-old Swede, whose two other six-metre efforts came in the European Championships final last year, opened with first-time clearances at 5.51m and 5.67m. After a foul at 5.83m, he cleared it on his second try and then went over 5.94m at the first time of asking to achieve the second-best mark in US collegiate history.
He ended his competition with three misses at 6.01m, but came close enough to suggest it won’t be long before he re-joins six-metre territory.
There were two close throwing contests in Baton Rouge. Portious Warren of Trinidad and Tobago got the better of USA’s Jeneva Stevens in the shot, 18.61m to 18.44m. Warren had never previously bettered 18 metres but surpassed that line three times in this competition.
Janee Kassanavoid produced a lifetime best in the final round of the hammer to take the lead from Jeneah Stewart, 73.00m to 72.70m.
Elsewhere, Damar Forbes won the men’s long jump with 8.11m (2.0m/s) and Sha’Carri Richardson landed a sprint double with a wind-assisted 11.06 in the 100m and a wind-legal 22.78 in the 200m.
Roberts gets better of McLeod at Drake Relays
Rising US sprint hurdler Daniel Roberts pulled off a surprise victory over world and Olympic champion Omar McLeod in the 110m hurdles on the final day of the Drake Relays in Des Moines.
Roberts, who rocketed up the world indoor all-time list after running 7.41 to finish second in the 60m hurdles at the NCAA Indoor Championships earlier this year, stopped the clock at a wind-assisted 13.28 (2.3m/s) to beat the Jamaican star by just 0.01.
The women’s event wasn’t nearly as close with world record-holder Kendra Harrison winning comfortably in a wind-assisted 12.65 (3.3m/s).
In a high-quality men’s pole vault competition, Chris Nilsen cleared 5.85m to beat world champion Sam Kendricks and Andrew Irwin, both of whom managed 5.80m.
World indoor pole vault champion Sandi Morris made her 2019 debut with a 4.76m victory over Jenn Suhr (4.66m), while Olympic shot put champion Ryan Crouser won his event with 21.11m.
In her first 400m hurdles race since winning the world title over the distance in August 2017, Kori Carter came from behind in the final stretch to win in 56.07.
USA and Jamaica show glimpse of what to expect in Yokohama with Penn Relays wins
Many leading sprinters warmed up for the IAAF World Relays Yokohama 2019 by running legs at the Penn Relays in Philadelphia on Saturday.
Multiple world and Olympic gold medallist Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce led off Jamaica’s victorious 4x100m quartet. Natasha Morrison, Schillonie Calvert and Shasha Lee Forbes got the baton safely around to win by more than a second in 43.19. Canada pipped two US teams to second place, clocking 44.37.
Jamaican teams – comprising eight women who are all Yokohama-bound – finished 1-2 in the women’s 4x400m. Shericka Jackon’s 51.6 lead-off leg was the fastest split of the day, helping her team to victory in 3:28.94.
While Jamaica won both the elite women’s 4x100m and 4x400m, USA reigned supreme in the men’s equivalent.
Mylik Kerley, Michael Cherry, Dontavious Wright and Je’Von Hutchison teamed up to win the 4x400m in 3:02.70 with Canada finishing a distant runner-up.
It was the same finishing order, albeit a lot closer, in the men’s 4x100m with USA winning in 38.80 from Canada’s 38.94.
Jon Mulkeen for the IAAF
