Williams-Mills wins Indoor 400m

BIRMINGHAM, England (CMC):

Novlene Williams-Mills was the only Caribbean competitor to win an event at the British Indoor Grand Prix yesterday.

Williams-Mills, an Olympic and World Championships (outdoor) relay silver medallist, clocked 51.87 seconds to win the women's 400 metres and set a season's best time.

The Jamaican ran strongly at the front of the pack in the women's two-lap race to wear the field down.

She held off Britain's Shana Cox at the bell and pulled clear over the final bend to win comfortably.

Cox was second in 52.32 and Janin Lindenburg of Germany ran a lifetime best of 53.36.

Kim Collins of St. Kitts & Nevis and Lerone Clarke of Jamaica were upstaged, when American Mike Rodgers won the men's 60 metres dash with a determined performance over the final 20 metres.

Collins and Clarke started well and were disputing the leading at the halfway mark, but Rodgers kept his composure to break the line just three-hundredths of a second ahead of Collins, with Clarke another one-hundredth behind.

Trinidad & Tobago's Marc Burns ran 6.55 to take fourth, with the Curacao-born Brian Mariano taking fifth with a Dutch national record of 6.63.

Collins and Ryan Shields of Jamaica failed to make it onto the podium, when they finished fourth (21.33) and fifth (21.52), respectively, in the men's 200.

Germany's Sebastien Ernst equalled the world-leading of 20.58 to win the one-lap event to match Grenadian Kirani James" mark.

Grenadian Randy Lewis copped third with a season's best distance of 16.62 metres in the men's triple jump, following a super scuffle between Britain's Phillips Idowu and Swedish star Christian Olsson.

Idowu took the lead in round one with 16.93m, but Olsson moved ahead in round three jumping 17.20m.

Idowu responded in the fourth, going six centimetres further and finished with a flourishing 17.57m, only seven centimetres short of Teddy Tamgho's world lead.