Ghanaian track star, Joseph Amoah brought his sprint talents back to the 592 and once again ran off with the spoils of the marquee men’s 100m title at the Aliann Pompey Invitational.
Staged under the bright lights of the National Track and Field Centre at Edinburgh on Saturday night, Amoah produced his usual bullet start and sped away for an exciting photo finish victory, to loud applause from the crowd.
Amoah, who clocked 10.35s, led the darling of local sprinting, Emanuel Archibald (10.37s), and Dominica Republic’s Alexander Ogando (10.41s) onto the podium.
Note; When the event was last staged in 2019, the African sprint sensation clocked a meet record 10.20 seconds to win the blue riband event. Crossing the tape once again in first place enabled him to successfully defend his coveted title of the fastest man of the meet.
Amoah along with Archibald who had broken the national 100m record a week prior running 10.09s, were both looking to run 10.00s or better in an effort to qualify for the Olympic Games this summer in Paris, France. However, the speedy pair just had to settle for the lucrative cash incentives that were on offer.
The Olympic qualifying window closes on June 30.
In the 200m event, Amoah (20.864s) was seeking a sprint double but had to settle for a second place finish in the slimmest of margins after St Kitts’ after Nadale Buntin (20.862s) pipped him in another nail biting photo finish.
Guyana’s Shamar Horatio clocked 20.886s to snare the bronze medal.
Meanwhile, Trinidad and Tobago’s Michelle Lee-Ahye and Guyana’s Jasmine Abrams finished 1-2 in the female version of the 100m event in 11.496s and 11.537s. Guyana’s Keliza Smith was the other podium dweller in 11.550s.
Lee-Ahye also gunned for a double, but Deshana Skeete played spoiler and starred in the half-lap event, crossing the line in 23.664s. Durant returned to win the 200m to record the only sprint double of the meet in 23.21s. The Trinidadian finished second in 24.166s with Milagros Duran of the Dominican Republic grabbing bronze in 24.299s.
Other standouts from yesterday’s meet included Dominica’s Lidio Feliz and Aliyah Abrams who were both crowned champions in their respective 400m events.
Feliz (46.023s) had a no-nonsense approach and went ahead from the smoke of the pistol. On the homestretch, his advantage ballooned with every powerful stride, and he went on to win the event ahead of USA’s Evan Mafilas (46.398s) and his countryman, Nefer Santana (46.516s).
Abrams led an all-Guyana sweep of the podium in the female version of the quarter miler.
The Olympian finished in 52.005s and crossed the tape comfortably ahead of Kenisha Phillips (52.860s), who snared silver. Teen sensation, Tianna Springer finished in 52.916s to cop the bronze.
Other winners yesterday included: Matthew Gordon (men’s 800m), Leslain Baird (men’s javelin), Archibald (men’s long jump), Analisa Redmond (women’s long jump) and Ruben Walters (men’s 110mh).
The organizers dubbed the meet, which was a qualifier for the Olympic Games, a success and plans are in the pipelines to make the annual fixture which was handsomely sponsored by the Ministry of Sport even bigger next year.
