Shermaine Williams (left) contending the lead with Natasha Ruddock (centre), while Janelle Gordon lags behind, in the women's 100m hurdles at the Junior Athletics Trial at the G.C. Foster College last year. Williams started the indoor season with an impressive win. - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer
FOLLOWING an impressive season last year in her first year at Johnson C. Smith University in North Carolina, former Convent of Mercy Academy (Alpha) outstanding hurdler, Shermaine Williams, started the indoor season with a bang at the Clemson University Invitational last Saturday.
Williams, the defending Indoor Division II female 60 metres hurdles champion, who had earned a second place finish for Jamaica in the 100 metres hurdles at the World Junior Championships last year, led a Jamaica sweep in the 60 metres hurdles, as she clocked a fast 8.27 seconds to take gold.
100m hurdles finish
Former Immaculate Conception High runner, Kimberly Laing, competing for Alabama University, finished second, in 8.40 seconds, while last year's Champs Class I 100m hurdles champion, Rosemarie Carty, completed the sweep by finishing third.
Carty, in her first competition for Johnson C. Smith University, clocked 8.61 seconds.
After being plagued with injury during the latter part of the season last year, former Kingston College athlete, Leford Green, who represented Jamaica at the World Senior Championships in 2007, started the season on a winning note for Johnson C. Smith as he won the men's 500 metres in a respectable 1:03.52.
Following their impressive start to the season, Lincoln University, coached by Jamaican Victor 'Poppy' Thomas, continued where they left off before the Christmas break, with Janika Martell, formerly of The Queen's School, leading the way with a double.
Competing at the Missouri Invi-tational last Saturday, Martell won the women's 60 metres in 7.42 seconds and the 200 metres in 25.57 seconds.
Former Vere Technical High School sprinter, Shana Kay Wright (7.59), was the runner-up in the 60 metres and had a third-place finish in the 200, in 25.90.
In the same 200m, G.C. Foster College graduate, Monique Robinson, also competing for Lincoln, was second in 25.82.
There were also second-place finishes for Lincoln's Kadian Howell and Dwain Bryden. Howell clocked 2:18.58 in the women's 800m while Bryden, the former Camperdown High sprinter, clocked 6.85 in the 60m. Former G.C. Foster College athlete, Gavin Terrelonge, finished third in 6.87 seconds.
Another Jamaican won at the Yale Intercollegiate Track Classics last Saturday, as Trisha Ann Hawthorne, who was selected to represent Jamaica at last year's World Junior Track and Field Championships but failed to participate due to injury, won the 60m dash in 7.43 seconds for the University of Connecticut.