Gwen­dolyn Smith struck gold for T&T on the sec­ond day of the World Mas­ters (Over 35) In­door Track and Field Cham­pi­onships at the Alachua Coun­ty Sports Cen­ter, Gainesville, Flori­da, USA on Mon­day (March 24).

Smith won the women's 60-64 javelin event with a throw of 36.87 me­tres. The Mara­bel­la res­i­dent dom­i­nat­ed the com­pe­ti­tion as she took the top spot by more than sev­en me­tres over An­gela Muller of Ger­many (29.68) and Cos­ta Ri­can Maria Is­abel Chavar­ria Zum­ba­do (25.47).

Smith was in a class of her own as any one of five reg­is­tered throws (35.18, foul, 36.84, 36.09, 36.87, 36.75) was good enough for the gold. The vic­to­ry is her third World In­door crown af­ter her tri­umph at the 2010 and 2012 World In­doors edi­tions. She im­proved on the sil­ver from the 2023 World In­doors in Torun, Poland.

Speak­ing af­ter her gold­en per­for­mance, Smith cher­ished her lat­est ti­tle, say­ing: "Yes, it is an­oth­er world ti­tle for me. Every medal is spe­cial but this one was a lot of mean­ing be­hind it be­cause I sac­ri­ficed my­self and my prepa­ra­tion to train younger ath­letes, pri­ma­ry and sec­ondary (schools). Each of my ath­letes (have qual­i­fied for) in the Na­tion­al (Cham­pi­onships)."

She added: "I am hap­py for the sup­port from T&T. We do this from our hearts."

Smith will go for her sec­ond gold when she lines up in the women's 60-64 weigh throw fi­nals at 1.30 pm on Wednes­day (March 26). The for­mer West In­dies crick­eter is list­ed to con­test the dis­cus and shot put dis­ci­plines at the Cham­pi­onships which comes to an end on March 30.

Ray­mond Smith and Philbert Ryce se­cured spots in the men's 60m semi­fi­nals. In the pre­lim­i­nar­ies on Mon­day, Smith was eighth-fastest in the 65-69 cat­e­go­ry af­ter he won the first heat in 8.41 sec­onds. Ryce was ninth-best among the 50-54 field af­ter fin­ish­ing third in heat two in 7.60. The semi­fi­nals were sched­uled for Mon­day night.

The men's 65-69 60m fi­nal is set for 10.36 am, this morn­ing with the men's 50-54 medal race, card­ed for 10.48 am.

Geral­dine George was al­so sched­uled to be in ac­tion late Mon­day (March 24). The for­mer two-time World In­door cham­pi­on con­test­ed the women's 50-54 weight throw fi­nals.

Day Two re­sults

Women's Javelin (60-64)

1 Gwen­dolyn Smith (TTO) 36.87 (35.18, f, 36.84, 36.09, 36.87, 36.75)

2 An­gela Muller (Ger­many) 29.68

3 Maria Is­abel Chavar­ria Zum­ba­do (Cos­ta Ri­ca) 25.47

4 Ju­lia Haynes (USA) 25.40

5 Emile Class (USA) 23.53

6 Janean Shan­non (USA) 22.95

7 Dhar­ma Paris (Puer­to Ri­co) 22.44

8 Jill Yeo­mans (USA) 22.42

Men 60m Pre­lims

5o-54 Heat two: 2 Philbert Ryce (TTO) 7.60 (9th over­all)

65-69 heat one: 1 Ray­mond Smith (TTO) 8.41 (8th over­all)