media_artricles :: 2014

RECORD JUMP

Alexander sets new T&T standard on Independence Day

Ayanna Alexander found the ideal way to mark Trinidad and Tobago’s 52nd Independence Anniversary on Sunday--with a national record! In still conditions, at the T.C. Williams High School in Virginia, USA, Alexander disturbed the sand at 14.40 metres for gold in the Potomac Valley Games women’s triple jump.

The impressive jump was a big improvement on the previous T&T record of 14.15m--established by Alexander on May 19, 2012 at the Quantum Invitational Track & Field Classic, in Trinidad.

Alexander bounced back from a serious ankle injury earlier this year to earn bronze at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, the 32-year-old athlete jumping 14.01m.

Up until Sunday, that was her only 14-metre effort in 2014. She changed that statistic at the Potomac Valley Games, producing a jump that would have given her gold in Glasgow. With the big 14.40m effort, Alexander leaped from 39th to tenth on the 2014 world performance list.

Colombia’s Caterine Ibarguen leads the world with the huge 15.31m effort she produced at the Herculis IAAF Diamond League meet, in Monaco, on July 18. Russian Yekaterina Koneva is second at 14.89m, one spot ahead of Ukraine’s European champion Olha Saladukha (14.73m).

Jamaica’s Commonwealth Games gold medallist Kimberly Williams is fourth with a 14.59m jump, just ahead of Colombian Yorsiris Urrutia (14.58m). Cuba’s Mabel Gay (14.53m), and Russians Alsu Murtazina (14.50m) and Irina Gumenyuk (14.46m) are sixth, seventh and eighth, respectively, while another Cuban, Dailenis Alcantara (14.45m) is ninth.

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