Clay­ton Clarke

Sparkle McK­night has been named the top-ranked 400-me­tres run­ner in the lat­est USA Na­tion­al Col­le­giate Ath­let­ic As­so­ci­a­tion (NCAA) Di­vi­sion One rank­ings.

The Arkansas Uni­ver­si­ty stu­dent sped to the num­ber-one spot in the women's one lap event fol­low­ing her 52.17 vic­to­ry at the Sun An­gel Clas­sic in Ari­zona on April 5.

The Ch­agua­nas res­i­dent is al­so at num­ber sev­en on the In­ter­na­tion­al As­so­ci­a­tion of Ath­let­ics Fed­er­a­tions (IAAF) women's per­for­mance list­ing. The time is a new per­son­al best for the Lon­don Olympic sprint re­lay team mem­ber.

McK­night im­proved on her pre­vi­ous best of 52.44 set in win­ning last year's na­tion­al women's 400m ti­tle at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um in June. The 2010 dou­ble Carif­ta sil­ver medal­list al­so got un­der the B stan­dard of 52.35 for this year's World Out­door Track and Field Cham­pi­onships in Moscow, Rus­sia.

In ad­di­tion, the na­tion­al in­door record hold­er (52.52) is at sixth in the 400m hur­dles af­ter she clocked an­oth­er pb of 56.62 in cop­ping the Texas Star Elite ti­tle in March 23. The for­mer Cara­pichaima Sec­ondary stu­dent is al­so eighth in the world in the one-lap hur­dles event.

McK­night is al­so 66th in the 200m (23.91). Wayne Davis II is the on­ly oth­er T&T ath­lete in the top ten. Davis II (Texas A&M) is at sixth on the men's 110m hur­dles per­for­mance list with a 13.54 clock­ing, miss­ing the World Champs B stan­dard of 13.50. The Olympic semi­fi­nal­ist is al­so ninth on the World Rank­ings. Durel Bus­by (Wis­con­sin-Mil­wau­kee) is at 65th po­si­tion (14.26). Kai Selvon (Auburn), Shawn Fer­min (Wash­ing­ton State) and Ale­na Brooks (Min­neso­ta) are al­so in the top 20. Selvon lies at 16th in the women's 200m (23.37) while Fer­min and Brooks are at 17th in the women's 400m (53.37) and 800m (2:05.82), re­spec­tive­ly.

Brooks' clock­ing is a new per­son­al best for the Diego Mar­tin Gov­ern­ment Sec­ondary grad­u­ate. Oth­er ath­letes in the top 50 in­clude Jamol James (Ten­nessee)-33rd/10.33w and Sher­mund All­sop (LSU)-45th-10.48w in the men's 100m and in the women's 100m is Geronne Black of Port­land State, who is 44th (11.61w).

In the Ju­nior Col­lege stand­ings, Ker­ne­sha Spann (West­ern Texas) leads the way in the women's 400m hur­dles with her 1:00.27 post­ing in rac­ing to vic­to­ry at the Texas Tech Open on April 6. Spann is al­so ninth in the 400m flat rank­ings (56.11). El­ton Wal­cott (South Plains) is third in the men's triple jump with a leap of 15.82.