Ahye, Baptiste bid for glory*
By Kwame Laurence, kwame.laurence@trinidadexpress.com
Published on Mar 19, 2016, 1:13 am AST (T&T Express)ON THE MOVE: Trinidad and Tobago's Lalonde Gordon, centre, leads Jamaica's Fitzroy Dunkley, left, and Canada's Philip Osei, right, as they compete in a heat of the men's 400 metres during the World Indoor Athletics Championships, in Portland, Oregon, USA, yesterday. Gordon won the heat.
—Photo: APTrinidad and Tobago sprinters Michelle-Lee Ahye and Kelly-Ann Baptiste will challenge for women's 60 metres honours at the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Portland, Oregon, USA, today.
At 2.40 p.m. (TT time), Baptiste will face the starter in the opening first round heat. Ahye will run at 2.58 in heat four. The semis and final take place tonight. Also on show tonight will be Mikel Thomas in the men's 60m hurdles preliminaries and Cleopatra Borel in the women's shot put.
Earlier today, Ayanna Alexander competes in the women’s triple jump. The event is scheduled to start at 2.37pm. And at 3.40, T&T will do battle in the qualifying round of the men’s 4x400m.
After press time, last night, Deon Lendore and Lalonde Gordon were on the track, bidding for berths in tonight’s men’s 400m final. Lendore was drawn in the first semifinal heat, and Gordon in the second.
In the opening round, yesterday, Lendore won heat one in 46.38 seconds, forcing Kenyan Boniface Mweresa to settle for second spot in 46.44. Gordon was the class of the field in heat two, getting home in 46.72 seconds to finish ahead of Jamaica’s Fitzroy Dunkley (46.83).
Lendore was the third fastest qualifier, behind Qatar’s Abdalelah Haroun, the winner of heat four in 46.15 seconds, and Grenadian Bralon Taplin (46.24). Gordon was eighth fastest.
Rondel Sorrillo was in action in the men’s 60m semis, after press time last night, after finishing third in heat seven in 6.64 seconds. American Marvin Bracy was first home in 6.57, while second spot went to Japan’s Yoshihide Kiryu (6.59).
Jamaica’s Asafa Powell led all qualifiers into the semifinal round with a sizzling 6.44 seconds dash in heat five.
The men’s 60m final was contested late last night.
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T&T target 4x4 podium*
National record for Ahye at World Indoors
By Kwame Laurence, kwame.laurence@trinidadexpress.com
Published on Mar 19, 2016, 11:31 pm AST (T&T Express)Michelle-Lee Ahye on start line for 60m Dash at IAAF World Indoor Champs 2016Trinidad and Tobago will bid to finish on a high at the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Portland, Oregon, USA, today.
Lalonde Gordon, Jarrin Solomon, Deon Lendore and Machel Cedenio are expected to line up in the men’s 4x400 metres final, scheduled for 5.50pm (TT time). With Gordon and Lendore among the six qualifiers for the individual 400m final, contested after press time last night, Rondel Sorrillo and Ade Alleyne-Forte came into the team for yesterday’s 4x4 qualifying heat. Sorrillo, Solomon, Alleyne-Forte and Cedenio combined for third spot in three minutes, 07.83 seconds, progressing to the championship race as a “fastest loser”. Belgium (3:07.39) and Bahamas (3:07.55) secured the two automatic berths up for grabs in the race.
Late on Friday, Lendore clocked 46.23 seconds to finish second in the opening 400m semi-final heat, behind Grenada’s Bralon Taplin, the winner in 45.38, and ahead of Kenyan Boniface Mweresa (46.33). All three quartermilers advanced to the final.
In the second semi, Gordon finished third in 46.03 to claim his spot in the championship race. Defending champion Pavel Maslak of the Czech Republic won the heat in 45.71, the same time recorded by second-placed Qatari Abdalelah Haroun.
T&T sprinters, Michelle-Lee Ahye and Kelly-Ann Baptiste were in action after press time last night in the women’s 60m semis. They were both hoping to line up in the final a couple hours later.
Ahye was on fire in the fourth of six first round heats, yesterday. She won the race in 7.09 seconds to improve on the 7.10 national record she established in 2014 and equalled earlier this month. Baptiste clocked 7.20 seconds to finish third in the opening heat, advancing automatically to the semi-final round.
Ahye and Jamaican Elaine Thompson were second fastest in the heats at 7.09, two-hundredths of a second slower than American Barbara Pierre.
Ayanna Alexander was unable to produce a legal effort in yesterday’s women’s triple jump event, the T&T athlete fouling on all three attempts. Venezuela’s Yulimar Rojas (14.41m), German Kristin Gierisch (14.30m) and Greek Paraskevi Papahristou (14.15m) earned gold, silver and bronze, respectively.
On Friday night, Sorrillo bowed out of the men’s 60m event when he finished sixth in the first semi-final in 6.68 seconds.
Asafa Powell was tipped for gold after producing a Central American and Caribbean (CAC) record time of 6.44 seconds in the first round and matching it in the semis. But in true Powell style, the Jamaican could not deliver the knockout punch, and had to settle for silver in 6.50. He finished behind American Trayvon Bromell, the gold medallist in 6.47, and just ahead of Barbadian bronze medallist Ramon Gittens, who established a new national record of 6.51.
After press time, last night, Cleopatra Borel competed in the women’s shot put. And in another late event, Mikel Thomas faced the starter in the fourth and final men’s 60m hurdles first round heat. The semis and final are on today.
Michelle-Lee Ahye celebrate after setting new NIR of 7.09 for 60m at IAAF World Indoor Champs 2016>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Ahye runs in record time 7.09 seconds
By Rachael Thomspon-King (T&T Guardian)
Published: Sunday, March 20, 2016Michelle-Lee Ahye (centre) versus her rivals in 60m Dash at IAAF World Indoor Champs 2016T&T sprinter Michelle-Lee Ahye set a new national record of 7.09 seconds to make it into the semi-finals of the women’s 60 metres at the IAAF World Indoor Championships at the Oregon Convention Centre in Portland, USA, yesterday.
Ahye won heat four with ease, finishing ahead of Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith (7.12) and Gloria Hooper of Italy, who ran a personal best of 7.29 to take the final automatic qualification spot.
“I’m very happy about it. I was expecting it to happen, but not in the first round,” Ahye was quoted saying on the IAAF website.
Kelly-Ann Baptiste ran her season’s best 7.20 to finish third in the first heat of the dash which was good enough to take her into the semi-finals and hopefully into the final. Both races were scheduled for last night.
Quartermilers Deon Lendore and Lalonde Gordon both advance to the final of the men’s 400m event. Lendore crossed second in the first semi-final in a time of 46.23. He followed Grenadian Bralon Taplin (45.38) to the line with Kenya’s Boniface Mweresa running a season’s best of 46.33 to take the third and the final qualification spot.
Gordon held on for third in the second semi-final in a time of 46:03 to nab his place in the final. He was also quoted as saying afterwards: “There’s still work to do.” With both Gordon and Lendore making the finals of the men's 400m dash, which was set for late last night, the quartet of Rondell Sorrillo, Jarrin Solomon, Ade Alleynne Forte and Machel Cedenio, in that order did well to advance to the final of the men's 4x400m relay when they finished third in heat one in a time of 3:07.83. The final is set for this evening.
Sorrillo failed to progress out of the 60m event, placing sixth in 6.68 in the first semifinals heat. Eventual winner was Trayvon Bromell, who became the first US athlete to claim the men’s world indoor 60m title in six years with a personal best of 6.47.
Bromell, who almost didn't make it through to the final at last weekend's US Indoor Championships after finishing fourth in his semifinal, was the first man out of the blocks in lane three and maintained his lead throughout to prevail over Jamaica’s Asafa Powell (6.50) and Ramon Gittens of Barbados (6.51), respectively.
Over on the field, Ayanna Alexander fouled on all three her attempts in the women’s triple jump event. Yulimar Rojas only got in one valid jump but it was all that was needed for the Spain-based jumper, coached by Cuban long jump great Ivan Pedroso, to get Venezuela’s first world indoor title. Her second round effort of 14.41m notched up her country’s first medal at this competition of any hue.
Late last night, “Sportswoman of the Year” Cleopatra Borel was to compete in the final of the women's shot put and hurdler Mikel Thomas will be hoping to clear all his hurdles to get into the semifinals when he was to run in lane two of heat four.
Ahye 07.09 NR Women's 60m Heat 4 World Indoor Championship Portland 2016https://www.youtube.com/v/3Le_deWQpi4>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Thompson wins World 60m bronze
March 20th, 2016 8:32am (TrackAlerts.com)Michelle-Lee Ahye (lane 4) versus her rivals Elaine Thompson (lane 3), Dafne Schippers (5) and Barbara Pierre (lane 6) at IAAF World Indoor Champs 2016 06PORTLAND - Elaine Thompson won Jamaica's second sprint medal at the IAAF World Indoor Championships at Portland 2016, while Deon Lendore of Trinidad and Tobago bagged bronze in the men's 400m final on Saturday's Day 3.
Thompson, the world outdoor 200m silver medalist from Beijing last year, raced home in 7.06 seconds to take third place in the women's 60m dash behind American Barbara Pierre, who won the title in 7.02secs.
Pre-championships gold medal favourite Dafne Schippers of the Netherlands took the silver medal in 7.04secs.
Meanwhile, Lendore added to the Caribbean medal tally on day three after he captured a bronze medal in the men's 400m final.
The Trinidad and Tobago representative posted a time of 46.17 to finish behind Pavel Maslak (CZE), who successfully defended his world indoor title with a time of 45.44 and Abdalelah Haroun (QAT), who ran 45.59 for the silver.
In the women's 400m final, Jamaica's Stephenie Ann McPherson finished fourth in 52.20 after she got trapped on the inside of lane one on the final lap and was unable to overtake anyone.
The event went to Oluwakemi Adekoya of Bahrain, who went wire-to-wire to take the victory in 51.45 ahead of Americans Ashley Spencer (51.72) and Quanera Hayes (51.76).
In qualifying round action on Saturday's third day, Jamaica's Omar McLeod booked his place in the semi-final of the men's 60m hurdles after winning his heat with the joint second fastest time of the round in 7.58 seconds.
Shane Brathwaite (7.68) from Barbados and Mikel Thomas (7.72) of Trinidad and Tobago also made it into the semis.
Jamaica (3:07.30), Bahamas (3:07.55) and Trinidad and Tobago (3:07.83) all booked their spots in the final of the men's 4x400m relay.
In action in the field events, Cleopatra Borel of Trinidad and Tobago heaved a season's best of 18.38m to finish fourth in the women's Shot Put, while Kurt Felix of Grenada set a new national indoor record with 5986 points when finishing sixth behind American Ashton Eaton in the men's Heptathlon.
The IAAF world indoor championships will conclude Sunday afternoon.