Leah Bertrand of Ohio State University, Minnesota's Kion Benjamin and Omari Lewis (Liberty) sped to 100 metres gold in their US Collegiate Conference Championships, recently.
Bertrand blazed away with women’s 100m dash title in the Big Ten Outdoor Championships in Bloomington, Indiana on May 14 in 11.15 seconds. Another T&T sprinter Akilah Lewis (Minnesota) missed out on a medal taking fourth spot in 11.28.
In the preliminaries one day earlier, the Simplex sprinter sped to 11.08 to set a new school record. Lewis was seventh (11.34) and Naomi Campbell (Purdue) ended in 17th (11.67). The top eight advanced to the finals.
Bertrand’s 10.08 pushed her up to fifth on the T&T women’s 100m all-time list. The 2021 World Under-20 Championships competitor is now tied with Fana Ashby (11.08). National record holder Michelle-Lee Ahye (10.82), Kelly-Ann Baptiste (10.84), Khalifa St Fort (11.06) and Semoy Hackett (11.07) are the only local sprinters to have run faster than Bertrand.
The 21-year-old picked up another Big Ten title when she anchored Ohio State to retain gold in the women’s 4x100m in 43.17.
Benjamin made it a T&T Big Ten sprint 100m double as he won the men’s version of the dash in 10.18 with his school-mates and compatriots Carlon Hosten in third (10.22) and Devin Augustine in seventh (10.24). Benjamin topped the preliminaries in 10.21 with Augustine in third (10.21) and Hosten sixth (10.25). Ako Hislop of Maryland was 10th (10.47).
Hosten was second in the 200m (20.43) with Augustine third (20.45) and Benjamin fifth (20.72). The trio then helped Minnesota to the men’s 4x100m title in 38.87.
Kashief King copped silver with Illinois in the men’s 4x400m (3:06.79).
At the ASUN Outdoor Championships in Jacksonville, Florida, Lewis' brother Omari landed the men’s 100m and 4x100m honours in 10.43 and 40.72 seconds, respectively. Omari missed out on a third title when he was fourth in the 200m (21.33).
Shania Lemaitre (Holy Family) snatched the women’s 800m gold at the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) Championships in New Jersey in 2:17.22 and copped her second gold with Holy Family’s 4x400m team (3:49.71). Lemaitre was also second in the 1,500m (4:53.91).
Che Lara (Limestone), Genesis Joseph (Arkansas Pine Bluff) Safiya John (Southern Mississippi) and Anya Akili (Tennessee Tech) earned silver medals.
Lara took the second spot in the men’s 400m at the South Atlantic Conference (SAC) Championships in South Carolina. The 2022 Commonwealth Games relay gold medallist was 11th in the 200m preliminaries (21.59).
Joseph was runner-up in the men’s 800m at the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) Championships in Texas in 1:52.63.
John was second in the women’s heptathlon at the Sun Belt Championships in South Carolina. The 2019 Carifta gold medallist amassed 5,432 points in the seven event discipline. She was also fifth in the high jump (1.70m) and seventh in the 100m hurdles (14.78w).
Akili came away with silver in the women’s long jump (6.89pb) at the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) Championships in Illinois. The two-time Carifta Games medallist was also fifth in the 100m hurdles (14.39). Another Tennessee Tech student Malika Coutain was a member of her school’s victorious 4x400m team (3:46.60).
Tyriq Horsford (Missisippi State), Cherisse Murray (Alabama), Dominic Cole (De Paul) and Onal Mitchell (Northern Iowa) were bronze medal winners.
Horsford was third in the men’s javelin at the Southeastern Conference (SEC) Championships with 71.66m. The five-time Carifta champion was also third at the 2019 SEC meet. Murray also took third spot in the women’s shot put at the SEC Championships in Louisiana with a best effort of 17.39m.
Cole sped to bronze in the men’s 100m (10.57) at the Big East Champs in Pennsylvania. He also picked silver with DePaul’s men’s 4x100m (41.66) and was fourth in the 200m (21.49). Mitchell raced to third in the men’s 400m (47.77) at the MVP Championships in Illinois. Mitchell won a second bronze in the men’s 4x400m (3:18.77).
Jalen Purcell (Western Texas A&M) won gold with his school’s 4x100m team at the Lone Star Championships in Texas in 39.94.
