Nickel Ashmeade and Marshevet Myers amaze spectators at the 5th Ponce Grand Prix – Athletics news
In athletics, one of the most competitive and tough discipline is the sprint run, which not only requires tremendous speed from the contestants, but also impressive physical shape, stamina, energy and complete fitness.
Physical fitness, of course is a pre-requisite for all of the disciplines of athletics, but in sprint runs, which observe a major chunk of the injuries faced by all athletes, it becomes further necessary for the runners to maintain their health.
One such athlete who, amid his tremendous physical fitness, has carved out a place into the 100m sprint is Nick Ashmeade Jamaica, who along with USA’s Marshevet Myers, have recently prevailed as victors at the 5th Ponce Grand Prix.
Ashmeade, who, one week after appearing as the first man to clock under 20 seconds over a distance of 200m this year, has marked his formidable potential early this season. He also bagged a close win over the distance of 100m. The results produced by the top-three runners have culminated in breaking top-three records of the previous meet.
For marking his win, Ashmeade defeated USA’s Justin Gatlin, the Olympian of 2004 and World Champion 2005, by a margin of one hundredth of a second. It was a magnificent win, as the meet witnessed challenging weather conditions of a humid night. Had the weather conditions at the venue been supportive, spectators could have observed the first sub 10 on Puerto Rican soil. Nevertheless, the competition was no less than a feast.
The results marked a massive improvement for the Jamaican, who had a personal best of 10.29 seconds prior to this run. With the display of such a performance, he has rightly made a place into the national team for the upcoming World Championships in Daegu.
For marking an equally enviable performance, Keston Bledman, the World and Olympic champion, finished third and clocked 10.09 seconds.
Marshevet Myers, the last minute entrant from USA swept the Women’s race for clocking 11.09 seconds and pulverised the earlier record of 11.15 seconds set by her fellow country-woman, Gloria Asumnu, back in 2010.
In the Men’s 400m hurdle race, which was the most awaited meet of the event, drizzle started to fall down and particularly interrupted the last moments of the race.
Amid poor weather conditions, Culson could not repeat his last year’s performance where he had marked a sub 48 seconds. Nevertheless, he was successful in pleasing the home crowd for finishing in 48.92 seconds, well ahead of Michael Tinsley, his rival from the USA and Danny McFarlane, the runner-up of the Olympic 2004 from Jamaica, who finished in 49.77 seconds. Jehue Gordon, the runner from Trinidad and Tobago who had finished fourth in Berlin 2009 and third in Ponce in 2010, could not make it to the race because of visa issues delays.
Addressing to the roaring crowd who had been a significant support for the runner, Culson said after the meet, “Thanks to all who support me in the good and bad times.”
In the women’s event, it was Shenna Tosta, the Olympic silver medallist from USA, who bagged the event for marking 55.65 seconds. The second and third places were claimed by Christine Spence (55.90 seconds) and Tiffany Ross-Williams (56.47 seconds), respectively.
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