RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil, (CMC) - Guyana’s Commonwealth champion Aliann Pompey was among a quartet of Caribbean winners at the IAAF Rio Grand Prix II meet yesterday.
Pompey ran a personal season’s best 51.58 seconds to win the women’s 400 metres, while Cydonie Mothersill of the Cayman Islands, and Jamaicans Michelle Ballentine and Lacena Golding, also logged wins at the meet.
Pompey, who gold at the Manchester Commonwealth Games in 2002, outranMonique Hennagan (51.67) in the one-lap event, in which Jamaican Veteran Sandie Richards placed seventh in 52.63 seconds.
The 800 metres was a close race between Ballentine and Mozambique’s Tina Paulino.
Ballentine was victorious in two minutes 00.88 seconds, a personal best, while Paulino -- Maria Mutola’s cousin -- clocked 2:00.96, a season’s best.
Brazilians Luciana Mendes and Juliana Paula de Azevedo followed with 2:01.58 and 2:02.60, respectively.
Golding-Clarke (12.97) won the women’s 100-metre hurdles with her Jamaica teammate Vonette Dixon third in 13.04 seconds.
The women’s 400-metre hurdles was won by South Africa’s Surita Febbraio (55.83) with Barbadian Andre Blackett, the 1998 Commonwealth champion, second in 56.34 seconds.
Trinidad and Tobago’s Cleopatra Borel (18.33 metres) got third in the women ’s shot, behind Ostapchuk Nadezhda (19.19) of Belarus, and Cuban Yumileidi Cumba (19.06).
Bahamian World Indoor champion Dominic Demeritte suffered an upset loss in the men’s 200 metres.
Brazilian de Lima Vicente won in 20.45 seconds, ahead of Demeritte (20.71) and another Brazilian Domingos André (20.74), with Jamaican Ricardo Williams fourth in 20.92 seconds.
Bahamian Chris Brown (46.05) and Jamaican Michael McDonald (46.16), were second and third respectively in the men’s 400, won by American Derrick Brew (45.96).
Brazil’s Jadel Gregório, silver medallist at the 2004 IAAF World Indoor Championships in Budapest, produced the best performance of the meet, posting a personal best 17.22 metres to win the men’s triple jump.