BEIJING, China, CMC- Multiple World and Olympic champion Veronica Campbell Brown won a major race for the first time this season when she clocked a season’s best 11.14 seconds to win the women’s 100m at the IAAF World Challenge Meeting held in Beijing yesterday.
The Jamaican, who has had some ordinary performances so far this season, led a clean sweep of Jamaican women in the top four places on the same track that she won the Olympic Games 200m in 2008.
Campbell Brown held off a strong challenge from Simone Facey who was second in 11.19 seconds, Trisha-Ann Hawthorne third in 11.23 seconds and Aleen Bailey fourth in 11.32 seconds.
Facey, who is part of the Jamaica team to the IAAF World Relays, was the other Jamaican winner at the meet taking the women’s 200m in a season’s best 22.67 seconds.
VCB will not be in the Bahamas for the IAAF World Relay meet this weekend.
Facey and Bailey had a Jamaican 1-2 in the 200m as Bailey clocked 23.11 seconds with Hawthorne taking fourth in 23.32 seconds.
Another major highlight was the performance of US sprinter Justin Gatlin who smashed the season’s best 100m time he set less than a week ago to claim victory.
Gatlin comfortably won his race with a time of 9.87, slicing five-hundredths of a second off the 9.92 he clocked to win last Sunday’s Diamond League meet in Shanghai.
Sunday’s result was the first time this season the veteran sprinter had dipped under ten seconds.
Gatlin’s compatriot Michael Rodgers took silver in 10.03, and Kim Collins from Saint Kitts and Nevis came third in 10.11.
Meantime Trinidad and Tobago’s Keshorn Walcott recaptured some of his old magic by winning the javelin event with a throw of 83.94m.
The winning effort was an impressive come back for the London 2012 gold medallist who finished a disappointing 7th in Shanghai on Sunday.
