Clay­ton Clarke

Ke­ston Bled­man con­tin­ued his im­pres­sive 2012 sea­son clock­ing a per­son­al best of 9.89 sec­onds in the men's 100m at the Adi­das Gold­en South Clas­sic in Or­lan­do, Flori­da on Sat­ur­day. Bled­man im­proved his pre­vi­ous pb of 9.93 which he ran in 2011. The 2005 World Youth bronze medal­list sped to the sen­sa­tion­al time in top­ping the pre­lim­i­nar­ies but opt­ed out of the fi­nals. Bled­man took heat two, ahead of the Ja­maican pair of Ra­mon Mc Ken­zie (10.31) and Os­hane Bai­ley (10.32). An­oth­er Ja­maican Nick­el Ash­meade was first to the line in the first heat in 10.01 ahead of USA's Travis Pad­gett (10.11). In the fi­nals Ash­meade sped to gold in 9.97. Bled­man's time im­proves his pre­vi­ous 2012 best of 10.06 and is the sixth quick­est of the year be­hind world record hold­er Us­ain Bolt of Ja­maica (9.82), an­oth­er Ja­maican, World Cham­pi­on Yohan Blake (9.84), Amer­i­can Justin Gatlin (9.87) and Asafa Pow­ell of Ja­maica (9.88).

He is now 24th on the World all time list­ing along with Pad­gett, Darvis Pat­ton (USA) and Ngo­nidza­she Makusha of Zim­bab­we.

Se­moy Hack­ett was al­so in rip­ping form, zoom­ing to a na­tion­al women's 200m mark of 22.55 at the NCAA East Re­gion­als, in Jack­sonville, Flori­da on Sat­ur­day. She achieved the time in win­ning heat two in the quar­ter­fi­nals. Hack­ett broke the old mark of 22.60 set by her To­bag­on­ian col­league Kel­ly-Ann Bap­tiste set back in 2009. The mark is well un­der the Olympic A stan­dard of 23.10 and al­so bet­ters her pre­vi­ous best of 22.75 which she ran in cap­tured the 2010 NCAA Di­vi­sion two half lap ti­tle. In the heats, Hack­ett clocked 23.05, al­so an Olympic A time. Kai Selvon fin­ished sixth quick­est in the quar­ters with a sea­son's best time of 23.01. She al­so dipped un­der the Olympic mark. Both re­turned to help their schools in the 4X100m. LSU was the fastest qual­i­fi­er in 43.26, with Auburn in sixth (44.18) and Flori­da In­ter­na­tion­al, with T'Keyah De­moy on an­chor, in 11th (45.05). The top 12 qual­i­fied for the 2012 NCAA Di­vi­sion 1 Cham­pi­onships in Des Moines, Iowa from June 6 to 9.

In the men's 4x100 heats, Sher­mund All­sop and Jamol James were on their schools' qual­i­fy­ing teams. All­sop's LSU was fourth fastest (39.51) while James paced Ten­nesse to fifth over­all (39.66). Ade Al­leyne-Forte (LSU) and Emanuel May­ers (Mis­sis­sip­pi State) will make the trip to Des Monies af­ter LSU topped the men's 4X400m heats (3:02.20) with Mis­sis­sip­pi State in third (3:04.61). All­sop failed to book a spot in the men's 200m af­ter he fin­ished in 15th in the quar­ter­fi­nals in a per­son­al best time of 20.71. He im­proved on his pre­vi­ous best of 20.85. Robert Colling­wood (South Mis­sis­sip­pi) was 25th in the men's shot put qual­i­fiers with a throw of 17.52 (sea­son's best), miss­ing out on a top 12 spot. De­on Lendore, Zwede He­witt and Nyoka Giles were on their schools' re­lay out­fits which were among the qual­i­fiers. Lendore an­chored Texas A&M to third place in the men's 4X400m heats in 3:04.30 with He­witt's Bay­lor in sixth (3:07.17. Lendore ran his leg un­der 45 sec­onds. Giles pushed Min­neso­ta to sev­enth in the women's 4X100m qual­i­fiers in 44.43. In the women's 4X400m event Min­neso­ta was 19th in 3:41.88. Iowa's Carisa Lea­cock was 31th in the 31th in the women's triple jump qual­i­fy­ing round in 12.27. On­ly the top 12 ad­vanced.