media_artricles :: 2014

Walcott bags Continental bronze

Olympic champion Keshorn Walcott bagged bronze in the men’s javelin at the IAAF Continental Cup, in Marrakech, Morocco, yesterday.

Walcott opened the competition with an 81.02 metres throw—good enough for second spot at the end of the first round. The Trinidad and Tobago field athlete fouled in round two, and slipped to third. He stayed there after another foul throw in the third round.

Commonwealth Games champion Julius Yego threatened to nudge Walcott off the podium, the Kenyan throwing 83.06m in the fourth and final round. But Walcott saved his best for last, the Commonwealth silver medallist responding with an 83.52m throw to secure bronze for the Americas team.

Egypt’s Ihab Abdelrahman emerged victorious for Africa with his 85.44m second round throw. Silver, meanwhile, went to Europe, Czech Republic’s reigning world champion Vitezslav Vesely producing an 83.77m effort.

T&T’s Cleopatra Borel threw the iron ball 18.68m to finish fifth in the women’s shot put. With New Zealand’s Olympic, world and Commonwealth champion Valerie Adams a non-starter, Christina Schwanitz was the class of the field, the German winning for Europe with a 20.02m throw. Borel’s Americas teammate, American Michelle Carter landed the shot 19.84m to finish second, while third spot went to China’s Lijiao Gong, the Asia-Pacific athlete throwing 19.23m.

Europe emerged as Continental Cup champions with 447.5 points, forcing Americas to settle for second with 390. Africa (339) and Asia-Pacific (257.5) were third and fourth, respectively.

On Saturday, T&T’s Michelle-Lee Ahye and Richard “Torpedo” Thompson earned 4x100m gold. Ahye ran the second leg for Americas in the women’s event, while Thompson anchored the Americas quartet in the men’s sprint relay.

Earlier, Ahye seized silver in the women’s 100m dash in 11.25 seconds. Jamaican Veronica Campbell-Brown clocked 11.08 to take the victory, leading a one-two finish for Americas.

“I’m really happy with the first and second place (for Americas),” said Ahye, “but my time was very disappointing. I came off of injury…I’m kind of disappointed right now, but I’ll get over it.”

In June, Ahye clocked a personal best 10.85 seconds.

“This is my best year so far in track and field. I’m very happy.”

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