media_artricles :: 2018

Gittens breaks T&T pentathlon record again

T&T's Tyra Gittens broke her own national record in the women's pentathlon at the NCAA Division I Indoor Championships at the Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium, College Station in Texas, USA on Friday night.

The Texas A&M University freshman tallied a personal best 4,197 points to place eighth in the five discipline event, improving on her career best score and national record of 4,121 that she set at the Southeastern Conference (SEC) Championship last month.

Gittens ran a career-best 8.35 seconds in the 60m hurdles to earn 1,050 points and put her in fifth after the first event. She then finished fifth in high jump with a 1.78 metres-leap, before reaching a career-best distance of 12.84m in the shot put, which placed her third overall with two events remaining.

She stayed in third place with a leap of 5.99m in the long jump, however, the final event saw her drop five spots after clocking with a time of 2:35.05 in the 800m.

In January, Gittens became the first T&T athlete to hit 4,000-mark, establishing a new national record at the Razorback Invitational indoor track and field meet in Arkansas. Then she had bagged a bronze medal in the event.

In the women's shot put final, junior Portious Warren of the University of Alabama placed 11th with her best throw measuring 16.14m. There was not any success for T&T runners as non advanced out of the preliminary round in their respective events. Taking the track first was national 110m hurdles champion Ruebin Walters also of the University of Alabama. He raced in the second of two heats and crossed seventh in a time of 7.93 to place 13th overall, not quick enough to advance as only eight advance, the top two in each heat plus the next four best times.

University of Kentucky sprinters Dwight St Hillaire and Kayelle Clarke suffered a similar fate in the preliminaries in their respective 200m races with neither T&T athletes being among the top eight fastest times to progress to the final.

St Hillaire, a freshman, clocked 20.98 to cross fourth in the opening heat while Clarke, a senior, sped past the line in 23.29 to also place fourth in the second heat. Both sprinters were 15th overall.

Late yesterday, Alabama's Mauricia Preito and Louisiana State University junior Zakiya Denoon were to compete in the women's 4x400m relay finals.

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