Smith
BUDAPEST, Hungary, CMC:
JAMAICAN JUMPERS Trecia Smith and Germaine Mason were among the brightest spots on a challenging day for English speaking Caribbean athletes at the 10th IAAF World Indoor Championship yesterday.
Smith posted a national record 14.57 metres in women's triple jump qualifying and Mason was among the leading men's high jump qualifiers for the final with a season's best 2.27 metres.
It was an otherwise rough day for the region as sprinters Asafa Powell and Niconnor Alexander suffered injuries in the 60-metre races and Mardrea Hyman lost a shoe and dropped out of the women's 1500 metres heats.
Even top Caribbean sprinter Debbie Ferguson failed to make the final of the women's 60 metres won by American Gail Devers in a season's best 7.08 seconds.
Mason, the reigning Pan Am Games champion, led the qualifiers for today's men's high jump final that included defending champion Stefan Holm, of Sweden.
TOPPED GROUP B
Smith, a former multiple US Collegiate champion, topped Group B qualifying of the women's triple jump with her 14.57m effort, and was third best into today's final behind Italian Martinez Magdelin (14.81m) and Russian Lebedeva Tatyana (14.71m).
In the women's 60 metres, the 37-year-old Devers sped to her third 60-metre indoor title, as she topped Belgium's Kim Gevaert (7.12) and Yuliya Nesterenko (7.12) of Belarus.
Bahamian Debbie Ferguson (7.32), Vincentian Natasha Mayers, with a season's best 7.25, and Jamaican Brigitte Foster (7.32) were all eliminated at the semi-final stage.
Jamaica-born 43-year-old Merlene Ottey narrowly missed getting into the final after placing third in her semi-final in 7.21 seconds.
World leader Jason Gardner gave Britain its first ever win in the men's 60 metres when he won in 6.49 seconds ahead of American Shawn Crawford (6.52).
Trinidad and Tobago's Alexander, who ran a personal best 6.55 seconds in the first round, suffered an injury late in the final and finished eighth in 6.76 seconds.
Powell, winner of his first round heat in 6.60 seconds, pulled up hurt in his semi-final to finish fifth in 6.71 seconds, and the Cayman Islands' Kareem Streete-Thompson (6.64) also failed to make the final.
There were more promising results in the 400s.
Jamaicans Greg Haughton (47.71) and Davian Clarke (46.36), and Grenada's Alleyne Francique (46.76) all advanced from the first round of the men's 400 metres, but T&T's Ato Modibo (47.62) and Chris Brown (46.36) of the Bahamas were eliminated.
Mozambique's Maria Mutola ran a sizzling one minute 57.72 seconds in the women's 800 preliminaries in which Marian Burnett, with a national record 2:04.48, Barbadian Sheena Gooding (2:06.97), Jamaican Michelle Ballentine (2:05.94) were all eliminated.
In the 1500 metres, Jamaican Mardrea Hyman did not finish her heat after a collision with another competitor in which she lost a shoe.
Jamaican James Beckford's season's best 8.22 metres earned him a spot in the men's long jump final.
In other finals decided on yesterday's opening day, Ukraine's Vita Pavlysh won the women's shot put at 20.49 metres, and Portugal's Naide Gomes captured the pentathlon with 4,759 points.
