media_artricles :: 2017

Ahye third in Rabat Diamond League

T&T Olympic sprinter, Michelle Ahye placed third in the women's 100 metre sprint at the Rabat Diamond League in Morocco yesterday.

Ahye, the reigning T&T double sprint champion completed the trip in 11.02 seconds to squeeze her national team-mate Kelly-Ann Baptiste (11.04) and Nigeria's Blessing Okagbare (11.03) off of the podium. The race was won by Jamaica's double Olympic champion Elaine Thompson who clocked a sizzling 10.87 followed by Ivory Coast's Marie-Josee Ta Lou who completed in a time of 10.90 seconds.

The Rabat Diamond League is the tenth out of 14 stops on the circuit with the next being Monaco on July 21.

For Thompson, the Meeting International Mohammed VI d'Athletisme, as the Rabat leg is also known, was her 14th straight win in the women's 100 metre. The Jamaican expressed pleasure in her performance saying afterwards, "I'm pleased with my race, My races are going fine and I'm in the shape I want to be in now."

This was her fastest clocking since her 10.71 world lead which she produced at the Jamaican championships on June 23.

Also in action in yesterday's meet was T&T men's sprinter Keston Bledman. The former national champion in the men's 100 metre dash did the same distance in Morocco but could only cross the line 6th in a time of 10.26. Only one of the athletes in that eight-man field dipped beneath 10 seconds as Great Britain's Chijindu Ujah stopped the clock at 9.98 seconds. Ben Youssef Meite of Ivory Coast was second in 10.01 while Britain's Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake (10.18), China's Bingtian Su and Thando Roto (10.26) of South Africa completed the top five in that race.

Another Olympic champion, Shaunae Miller-Uibo, was a much more dominant winner, taking the 400m in 49.80 by more than a second over Natasha Hastings, who reached the line in 50.86.

The face-off with Olympic 800m champion Caster Semenya never fully materialised. The South African was lethargic from the gun and never in the hunt, eventually finishing seventh in 51.53.

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