Michelle-Lee Ahye is getting faster with each 100 metres outing, and is now just three-hundredths of a second outside the 11.15 seconds Olympic qualifying standard.
Ahye actually cocked 11.03 seconds for victory in the women's 100m final at the Chula Vista High Performance meet in California, on Sunday. The following wind, however, was above the allowable 2.0 metres per second, and the time will not be recognised as a qualifying performance for the Tokyo Games.
In the preliminary round, Ahye came close to the Olympic standard. With a legal wind at her back, the Trinidad and Tobago track star stopped the clock at a season's 11.18 seconds to win heat five.
Suspended for two years for "whereabouts failures", Ahye completed her ban on April 18. She made her return to competition on April 30, and has so far competed in ten races as she bids to qualify for the July 23-August 8 Tokyo Olympics. In five 100m outings, the 29-year-old sprinter has clocked 11.36 seconds, 11.23, 11.22, 11.18 and a wind-aided 11.03, getting faster with each race.
On Monday, 18-year-old Dillon Leacock staked his claim for selection on the T&T team for the August 17-22 World Athletics U20 Championships in Nairobi, Kenya. Competing at the Mark Trail Invitational, in Georgia, Leacock won the boys' 17-19 400m hurdles in a personal best 52.82 seconds. The winning run was well inside the 53.10 qualifying standard.
At the Duval County Challenge, in Florida, T&T quartermiler Deon Lendore earned bronze in the men's 400m in 45.16 seconds. Americans Michael Cherry and Justin Robinson were first and second, respectively, clocking 44.74 and 45.00. In the men's 400m "B" race, T&T's Asa Guevara secured fourth spot in 46.53.
Ruebin Walters got to the line in a season's best 13.50 seconds to finish sixth in the men's 110m hurdles final. The T&T sprint hurdler clocked 13.53 in the qualifying round.
Guevara finished third in the men' 200m "B" race in 20.82 seconds. Semoy Hackett and Reyare Thomas were fifth and sixth, respectively, in the women's 100m "B" race. Hackett clocked 11.76 and Thomas 11.83. Hackett also competed in the 100m "C" race, claiming third spot in 11.93. And Sparkle McKnight was fifth in her section and 11th overall in the women's 400m hurdles in 56.82.
