Thompson pockets Penn bronze
...visa and injury problems keep T&T out
Kwame Laurence klaurence@trinidadexpress.com
LSU QUARTET: Louisiana State's Kelly Ann Baptiste, Samantha Henry, Sherry Fletcher and Brooklyn Morris pose for photographers after winning the 4x100 metres at the Penn Relays, in Philadelphia, on Friday.
Trinidad and Tobago sprinter Richard Thompson bagged bronze in the college men's championship 100 metres dash, at the Penn Relays in Pennsylvania, USA, yesterday.
The Louisiana State University (LSU) student clocked 10.49 seconds.
Another T&T/LSU sprinter, Kelly-Ann Baptiste, copped sixth spot in the college women's 100m in 11.62, seven-hundredths of a second slower than her preliminary round run.
T&T track stars Marc Burns and Darrel Brown teamed up with Jamaicans Mario Forsythe and Nesta Carter to compete in the USA vs The World men's 4x100m relay. The "All Star" team finished sixth in 40.08 seconds. The USA Red team of Tyson Gay, Wallace Spearmon, Darvis Patton and Shawn Crawford clocked 38.35 for a comfortable victory. Jamaica (38.89) and USA Blue (38.97) finished second and third, respectively.
A T&T quartet was expected to do battle in the race. However, visa and injury problems reportedly kept T&T out, forcing Burns and Brown to team up with Forsythe and Carter.
El Dorado Secondary Comprehensive copped fifth spot in the high school boys' Championship of America 4x400m event in three minutes, 17.02 seconds. In the preliminaries, El Do were fifth fastest in 3:16.47.
El Do clocked 42.56 seconds to finish sixth in the high school boys' small schools 4x100m final. In the qualifying round, on Friday, the El Do combination of Denzil Delpesche, Akini Thomas, Maurice De Leon and Kervin Morgan topped heat 13 in 42.68 seconds to emerge as the seventh fastest of the 240 small schools on show.
The Queen's Royal College quartet of Christian Benjamin, Shermund Allsop, Rory John and Zwede Hewitt clocked 43.61 to finish second in heat 24 and 22nd overall among the small schools.
In the Olympic Development men's 110m hurdles, T&T's Karriem Pierre was ninth in 14.56 seconds.
On Friday, Mikel Thomas finished 12th overall in the college men's 400m hurdles. The University of Kentucky athlete got home in 53.46 seconds. Fatima College student Gavyn Nero returned a time of four minutes, 28.44 seconds to cop 17th spot in the high school boys' mile.
In Thursday's college women's 400m hurdles, Delaware State University athlete Cuquie Melville (1:01.71), Bowie State University's Ricci Alleyne (1:04.41) and St Augustine's College student Aisha George (1:04.63) were 21st, 46th and 48th, respectively.
And on Tuesday and Wednesday, Coppin State University athlete Natoya Baird accumulated 4,814 points to finish fifth in the women's heptathlon.