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| Natoya Goule celebrates winning the women's 800m final at the Jamaica Senior Trials in a new personal best 1:59.63 ahead of Simoya Campbell, who also did a personal best, 1:59.92 |
By Anthony Foster, TrackAlerts.Com Writer
Omar McLeod may have treated the National Stadium crowd here in Kingston with the best 110m hurdles time in the world this year, but the real joy for track & field fans came from Natoya Goule and Simoya Campbell.
On Saturday’s third and penultimate day, both Goule and Campbell broke two minutes, the latter for the first time, but both personal best times.
Goule covered her first lap in 58 minutes, followed closely by Campbell, who went by briefly. As Goule raced down the backstretch for the final time, Campbell stayed close, leaving, for a sprint down the final homestretch.
Both crossed the line with a glance on the clock, Goule's 1:59.63 to Campbell's 1:59.92, brought crazy celebration, as both went down on the track rolling and hugging each other….This was the sweetest moment, as the stadium was brought to its feat with loud applause.
"I'm really happy for this time because all season I wanted to go below two minutes, so I'm really proud," said Goule.
Kimarra McDonald finished third in 2:02.08, also a personal best.
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| Natoya Goule and Simoya Campbell celebrate their personal best times 1:59.93 and 1:59.92 in the women's 800m final at the Jamaica Senior Trials on Saturday, 27 June 2015 |
Later, the final event of the night, was McLeod’s show. The former Manchester High and Kingston College (KC) announced himself as a favourite for the world title in Beijing with his first sub-13 seconds time, 12.97 seconds, the fastest time in the world this year.
Hansle Parchment, the Olympic Games bronze medallist, finished second in a season best 13.08 and Andrew Riley, third in 13.35.
MVP’s Ricardo Cunningham topped the men’s 800m in 1:47.15 ahead of Jo-Wayne Hibbert 1:47.50.
Meanwhile, all eyes will be on Elaine Thompson in the women’s 200m final on Sunday. She was very comfortable in taking her heat of the event, 22.60 on Saturday. Thompson enters the final with the fastest time. Sherone Simpson 22.62 beat Veronica Campbell-Brown 22.75 in semi-final 2 while Samantha Henry-Robinson 22.95 won heart 3. Simone Facey 23.04 and Schillonie Calvert 23.29, Kerron Stewart 23.11 are also in the final.
Julian Forte recorded the best time of 20.04, a personal best, to be the fastest man going into the final of the men's equivalent. Nickel Ashmeade 20.23, Rasheed Dwyer 20.25, Tyquendo Tracey 20.39 and Warren Weir 20.26, also made the cut.
Christine Day 50.38, Stephenie-Ann McPherson 50.90, Shericka Jackson 50.65, Anastasia Le-Roy 51.79 and Chrisann Gordon 52.04 are the top qualifiers for the women’s 400m final.
On the men’s side, Edino Steele 45.19, Javon Francis 45.22, Rusheen McDonald 45.52, Peters Matthews 45.39 and Ricardo Chambers 45.56, are the top five.
In the field, Fedrick Dacres 63.23m won the men’s discus over Jason Morgan 61.89m and Chad Wright 61.42m.
Demar Forbes won the men’s long jump with 7.98m, beating Jamal Fuller 7.73m and Denroc Dixon 7.70.
Clayton Brown 2.15m beat Kristoffe Bryan 2.15m in the men’s high jump while Danniel Thomas 16.98m got it up on Genneva Greaves 14.32m in the women’s shot put. Daina Levy topped the women’s hammer with 63.03m.
