FIRST DAY OF NATIONAL CHAMPS WAS AS INTERESTING AS IT WAS REVEALING

So, some of the big stars were absent and the crowd was tiny (partly because of the threat of rain and mostly because of the World Cup) but there was still enough entertainment during Day One of the two-day National Senior Championships being held at the National Stadium.
In the absence of 2007 World 100-metre champion Veronica Campbell Brown, Olympic and World 100-metre champion Shelly Ann Fraser, and Olympic and World 100-metre silver medallist Kerron Stewart, the women’s 100-metre finalist was a face-off between 2006 Commonwealth 200-metre champion and 2008 Olympic 100-metre silver medallist Sherone Simpson and former high school prodigy Carrie Russell for the national female sprint title.
And what a race it was. Simpson, who recently recovered from a hamstring cramp and two knee surgeries and Russell engaged in a battle royale for the entire with Simpson managing to hold off the young upstart to win in a season’s best 11.12seconds to Russell’s 11.18seconds, a personal best.
Yes, the times aren’t exciting as many would have hoped and given that we have got used to 10.7s and 10.8s from our girls but considering that there are no major championships this year and that Russell, especially in only her first full season as a senior, the times are quite solid.
Simpson has run faster each time she has stepped on the track this season so this 11.12s shows that she is on her way back to the form that saw her run 10.82s into a 0.7m/s headwind in 2006.
These two ladies leave the island soon for meets in the US and Europe respectively. It will be interesting to see how soon these ladies join Kerron Stewart as the Jamaican women to dip under 11-seconds this season.
Michael Frater (10.13s), Kemmari Roach (10.13) and Lerone Clarke (10.18s), will make Sunday’s 100m final worthwhile, even if there is no Usain Bolt, Asafa Powell, or Yohan Blake.
We also got to see signs that Jamaica’s male 400-metre runners might just be making a comeback.
Jermaine Gonzales will not be running, choosing instead to focus on the European circuit this season but Ricardo Chambers with a very easy-looking 45.75, Allodin Fothergill and others are promising to make Sunday’s final quite intriguing. Will we see another Jamaican join Gonzales in running sub-45seconds? We can only hope.
In the women’s version, we can expect a sweet match up between Sherika Williams (50.95) and Novelene Williams-Mills (50.71) in Sunday’s final. Rosemarie Whyte could also be a factor in the finals.
Leford Greene is looking like he will be a world beater over the 400-metre hurdles. His 48.9s was impressive in that he hit a couple of the hurdles down the stretch and slowed noticeably as he approached the line. He is clearly one to watch by perhaps 2012 or 2013.
There was not much else to write home about but Sunday promises to be an even more entertaining day at the National Stadium.