Ver sets meet record at Kansas Relays

LAWRENCE, Kansas (CMC):

The husband and wife team of Omar Brown and Veronica Campbell-Brown slammed their fields in the 200 metres to be the leading lights for the Caribbean in the invitational events on Saturday at the Kansas Relays.

Campbell-Brown, the classy Jamaica sprint queen, established a new meet record with a time of 22.32 seconds at Hershberger Track in Memorial Stadium.

"The meet record was on my mind before I warmed up because it has been here for a long time," said Campbell-Brown, the two-time defending Olympic 200 metres champion. "And I felt like things were going great and I should go for it."

Campbell-Brown had a quick start, ran a smooth curve and finished strongly to erase the previous mark of 22.59 secs, which was set by compatriot Aleen Bailey nine years ago.

Minutes later, Campbell-Brown saw her husband Omar give a glimpse of his quality, when he clocked 20.84 secs to win the men's 200.

Brown edged two-time Olympian and Antigua & Barbuda 100 metres record-holder, Brendan Christian, who finished second in 20.93.

Very happy

"I knew Veronica would win (the 200)," said Brown. "And I knew I'd have to put in a good race to win. I'm happy that both of us got the victory."

Fortune favoured only Brown, however, when the pair lined-up in the 4x400 relays, respectively.

Brown linked-up with Jordan Boase, Kirkland Thornton and Erison Hurtault to win with the International All Stars in a time of three mins, 08.30 secs.

Campbell-Brown, along with Alycia Williams, Tanelah Campbell and Shareefa Lloyd running for On-Track Management, finished fourth in the women's mile relay with a time of 3:41.10 secs.

The International All Stars teams of Kineke Alexander of St Vincent & the Grenadines, Valerie Brown, Shellene Williams and Halimat Ismali won the race in three mins, 35.65 secs.