Guyana's 2002 Commonwealth Games women's 400-metre gold medalist, Aliann Pompey kept the `Golden Arrowhead' aloft on Sunday, when she defeated established American 800-metre record holder Jearl Miles by over a second, to win the New balance Games' 500-metre dash.
Pompey is expected home today and will be a special guest when the Guyana Olympic Association holds its Annual Appreciation Ceremony, billed for the Le Meridien Pegasus Hotel on Friday.
In winning the event, Pompey, the NCAA 500-metre record holder also pulled A.P. Randolph Senior, Natasha Hastings, to a high school national record in the event. Hastings placed fourth.
Pompey who ran unattached, since she is on a break from studies, clocked 1.10.06 in winning the event from Miles (New Balance) who placed second in 1.11.24. Tiffany Barnes (Delaware State University) was third in 1.11.77, and Hastings (A.P. Randolph) fourth in 1.11.84.
On January 10, Pompey in her first event for the season, endorsed her phenomenal performance of last year, by winning the 400-metre event at the Fordham/St. John's Universities Collegiate Invita-tional meet at New York's Armory Track, recording at the time, the world fastest time at a 400-metre this year.
Six days later, the Guyanese lowered her time to 52.2 seconds (hand-time), when she returned to the same track at the NY Road Runners Club's `Thursday Night at the Races' meet.
The multiple Guyana, South American and Colle-giate record holder was aiming to eclipse her 1999 personal best indoor time of 52.21 at the mid-January meet, but suffered a stumble at the start. She still managed to beat the next athlete by a full four seconds and her time was later ratified to be another `world leader' however, it only lasted a couple of days.
Pompey is reported to have said her performance represented "a progression in the right direction....surely I cannot complain".
Pompey is looking forward to making times that will guarantee her places in elite meets on the world circuit, aimed at landing her in this year's World Indoor Championships, slated for Birming-ham, England.
The last year Pompey competed on the indoor circuit, was in 2000, when she contested the 500-metre, returning a personal best time of 1.09.23 in Boston.