Trecia Smith of Jamaica in the Triple Jump final (© Getty Images)
Kaye Smith, 29, last year's Olympic fourth place finisher, produced the best performance of the South American Grand Prix of Fortaleza, a 14.91m women’s Triple Jump 2005 world leading mark, at the competition held this Wednesday, 18 May, at the “Estádio da Universidade de Fortaleza”.
The event was part of this “athletics-week” in Brazil, and was staged in between the Rio IAAF GP II from last Sunday 15 May, and the upcoming “Grande Prêmio Brasil de Atletismo” - IAAF GP - to be staged this Sunday 22 May in Belém.
Many of the athletes who competed on Sunday jumped to the recently inaugurated track of UNIFOR, where Smith continued to go further.
Smith, who is currently the third best athlete in the IAAF World Ranking for the event, had achieved the previous season’s leading mark of 14.62 in Rio, and this Wednesday she went even further, with an outstanding effort of 14.91m/0.6. It was the third best jump of her career. Smith had the following series: 14.91, foul, and 4 passes.
Compatriot Suzette Lee was second with 13.89/-0.6, and Romanian Mariana Solomon third with 13.84/-0.6.
Gregório jumps well too
In the men’s Triple Jump, Brazilian Jadel Gregório dominated the event, and recorded another remarkable performance: 17.46m/-0.8. This time things were not as easy as they were last Sunday, when he was able to finish the competition with one jump (17.58m). Here, after 2 fouls, Gregório recorded 16.97, pass, 17.06, and finally 17.46.
American Walter Davis improved his 16.57m performance from Rio with a much better 17.06/1.5 jump that also came in his sixth attempt, while France’s Julien Kapek was third with 16.42/0.1.
JJ Johnson continues with his show
Once again, the male sprint races belonged to American JJ Johnson, who took the 100 metres in 10.20/-0.8 (ahead of Jamaican Michael Frater in 10.27), and completed his second double of the week with a 20.46/0.3 performance at 200m, beating here Brazilian André Domingos da Silva, who clocked 20.56.
Redelen returns home to win 110m
After competing on Saturday at the Qatar GP in Doha, Brazilian hurdler Redelen Melo dos Santos confirmed the good form showed on Asian soil, were he ran a remarkable 13.30, good for third place, just 1/100 of second slower of his own South American record.
The tall 2.00m 29 year-old had a nice victory in Fortaleza with 13.37/-0.4, leaving American Joel Brown in second place (13.47) and Olympic finalist Matheus Inocêncio in third (13.48).
In the rest of the events, American Leonard Byrd won the 400 metres in a season’s best 45.16, Brazilian Fabiano Peçanha the 800 metres in 1:46.92, Kenyan Benson Esho the 1500 meters in 3:42.66, and Denmark’s Piotr Buciarski the Pole Vault with 5.50m.
Adams-Vili beats Olympic champion again
New Zealand’s Shot Putter Valerie Adams-Vili made it 2 in a row on the same week, by beating again Cuban Olympic Champion Yumileidi Cumbá and Belarus’ Natalya Kharaneko.
Though this time the mark was not as spectacular as last weekend (19.52m in Rio), Adams Vili still came up victorious with a 19.04m put. Cumbá recorded a season’s best of 18.92m that wasn’t enough, while Kharaneko threw 18.41m.
Demus unstoppable
Once again in her 400m Hurdles race, American Lashinda Demus had no rivals on the track but the clock.
In spite of her superiority over the rest of the field, Demus lowered again her season’s best to 54.36 with her victory, recording the second best time of the year in the world. Kazakhstan’s Natalya Alimzhanova was a distant second in 56.98.
Cydonie Mothersill, of the Cayman Islands, won the 200 metres (22.94/-0.7), Suriman’s Letitia Vriesde the 800 metres (2:02.18), Ireland’s Karen Shinkins the 400 metres (51.99), and Haiti’s Nadine Faustin the 100 metres Hurdles (13.02/-0.5).
Now the athletes will move to Belém for what promises to be a spectacular IAAF Grand Prix to be held next Sunday, 22 May.
Eduardo Biscayart for the IAAF
