Guyanese women in World and U.S. top-10 lists
By Lawrie Lockhart in Colorado
Guyana Chronicle
August 15, 2003
WITH the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) and Pan-American athletics championships looming, two of Guyana’s U.S.-based female athletes Marian Burnett and Aliann Pompey are expressing satisfaction after etching their names in the International Association of Athletics Federations’ (IAAF) world top lists.
They are among several Caribbean stars who have registered top-10 marks in their respective events.
Burnett, an NCAA champion, holds the #9 spot in the IAAF’s top-10 outdoor 800m list comprising several elite stars from across the globe. Her 2:03.17 at California’s Mt. SAC Relays on April 19th was recorded in her only half-mile event for the season, which is in its ninth week. Among world stars in the list are British champion Natalie Lewis (#1), Australian champion Tamsyn Lewis (#3), Tanya Blake of Malta (#4), American Jen Toomey (#6) and Tatyana Rosalova of Kazakhstan (#7).
The world top-10 listing is the first such achievement for the Louisiana-based student-athlete who was overly elated when contacted by Chronicle Sport.
“This is so much encouragement for me, especially since I’ve only had one race for the season, so far,” Burnett said, adding that studies and exams for “finals have kept me busy from further competitions”. She had broken her Guyana indoor 800m record with a 2:04.57 run in Florida early in February.
Commonwealth Games champion, Pompey says she “is revving-up for major meets later in the year, including the ‘world outdoors’.”
Like Burnett, she too has had less competition of late, since studies and exams toward her Masters degree demanded ‘front burner’ attention.
During the indoor season, Pompey twice held the world’s fastest 400m time and recorded a new Guyana national record (52.17s) at the distance.
The multiple record-holder also completed the indoor season as the IAAF world #5 at the seldom run 500m.
Early this month, she competed in Belem, Brazil, and placed 4th in the 400m. Her appearance there required air travel for almost 16 hours, which could have been a major factor in the bitter-sweet experience of getting off her first race of the season. “It wasn’t all that good, neither all that bad in the circumstances … but, hey! … it’s a start, and I’ll take it from there. I am confident of better things in the ensuing weeks,” she told Chronicle Sport.
Meanwhile, young New York High School track phenomenon Jeavon Benjamin is listed as the #2 athlete in the USA Track and Field’s (USATF) top-10 list at indoor 600m - another infrequently conducted event. Benjamin’s 1:30.67 recorded on Feb. 22 at Madison Square Garden stands as the year’s 3rd best time by USATF-classified athletes, and it is behind Katie Erdman’s double top strike at 1:30.33 in early March.
The IAAF’s top outdoor marks are held by not only several Caribbean athletes, but also many of Burnett’s former Lady Tigers teammates at Louisiana State University (LSU) which goes into next month’s collegiate Division I championships as the top-ranked women’s team after defending the indoor title last March.
Commonwealth Games (CWG) double sprint gold medallist Debbie Ferguson of the Bahamas leads both the 100m (10.97s) and the 200m (22.50s) lists, with her two performances a week apart in April in South Africa.
In the shorter sprint, she shares the top time with American multiple collegiate record holder Muna Lee (LSU) who recorded a wind-aided mark, and is 2nd at 200m in 22.74s. St Vincent’s NCAA champion Natasha Mayers is #10 at 100m and #4 at the longer sprint.
At 400m, Grenada’s former junior college champion Hazel Ann Regis (LSU) is #4 with her 51.54s timing in mid-April, while Jamaicans Ronetta Smith (ex-LSU) and NCAA champion Allison Beckford are 5th and 7th respectively. Australia’s junior world champion and CWG gold medallist Jana Pitman sits atop the pack with her decorated compatriot Cathy Freeman at #6. Pitman also heads the 400m hurdles list that has Beckford at #4 and another Jamaican Debbie Ann Parris (ex-LSU) at
#8.
Another Jamaican Vonette Dixon is #3 in the100m hurdles list which is headed by American collegiate champion Lolo Jones (LSU) and carries former NCAA champion Joyce Bates (ex-LSU) at #4. CAC Games champion Mardrea Hyman of Jamaica is 5th in the 1500m list with her 4:13.68 performance in April.
In the field events, Cubans Yamile Aldada and Yumileidi Cumba own the top marks of 14.85m and 19.03m in the Triple Jump and Shot Put, respectively.
Additionally, another Cuban pair, Yipsi Moreno and Yunaika Crawford are #2 and #8, respectively in the Hammer Throw, with Trinidad’s NCAA champion and record holder Candice Scott rounding off the category at #10.
Though Brazil’s Maurren Higa Maggi leads the Long Jump category, her 6.90m mark is less than half of a metre in front of the one at the bottom of the top-10 list where Bahamas’ Jackie Edwards sits. Trinidad’s Aisha James and CWG champion Elva Goulbourne of Jamaica are at #2 and #4, respectively.
