NCAA indoor wins for Pinnock, Distin

JAMAICAN collegiate athletes found the going tough last weekend at the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) Indoor Division 1 Track and Field Championships at the University of Alabama.

Wayne Pinnock and Lamara Distin were the only Jamaicans to taste success at the two-day championships. Pinnock won the men’s long jump and Distin topped the women’s high jump. There were top-three finishes for Carey McLeod in the men’s long jump and Stacy Ann Williams in the women’s 400 metres.

Competing in the first final of the meet on Friday’s opening day, Pinnock, the former Kingston College star, tasted success in his first outing for the University of Tennessee at a championship event by producing a personal best of 7.92 metres on his fifth attempt. He was actually in fifth position going into the fifth round, but he displaced leader and teammate Carey McLeod, who had to settle for second with 7.91 metres. McLeod, who, like Pinnock, was an outstanding jumper at Kingston College, took the lead on his first attempt.

On Saturday’s second and final day of the championships, Distin, the National Senior high jump champion and a former Rusea’s, Vere Technical, and Hydel high jumper, continued her impressive unbeaten form this season for Texas A&M University. Distin cleared 1.91 metres to win the event and in the process equalled her indoor personal best. The height is also the leading collegiate effort of the season. Tyra Gittens (1.89m), of the University of Texas in Austin, took second, and Rachel Glenn of the University of South Carolina ended third with 1.86m.

Williams, a former St Elizabeth Technical 400m runner, was the only other Jamaican to finish among the top three in an individual event at the meet. The University of Texas (Austin) student posted a personal best of 51.49 seconds for her third-place finish. Talitha Diggs, representing the University of Florida, won the event in a personal best 50.98 and it was also a personal best for second-place finisher Kennedy Simon of the University of Texas. She clocked 51.46. In this event, former Hydel High athlete Charokee Young, competing for Texas A&M University, ended seventh in 51.61.

Competing in his first season for Texas Technical University, former St Jago High and Kingston College sprint hurdler Vashaun Vascianna just missed out on a top-three finish in the men’s 60 metres hurdles final. He was fourth in 7.67 seconds as Trey Cunningham of Florida State University won the event in a personal best of 7.38.