Raymond Graham, Gleaner Writer

FORMER St Andrew Technical track-and-field coach, Victor "Poppy" Thomas, now in charge at Lincoln University in the United States, captured his third women's NCAA Division II indoor championships recently.

Lincoln amassed 100.5 points to beat Grand Valley into second place with 48 points. Sharing the spotlight with Thomas was last year's World Junior 100 metres hurdles champion, Shermaine Williams. The former Alpha Academy athlete, now in her second year at Johnson C. Smith University, wrote her name in the record books in the 60 metres hurdles.

Thomas was surprised by his female team's margin of victory.

"I expected the team to win but I did not expect them to win by that big margin because this is a brand new set of athletes and they really stepped up big time," said Thomas.

He had high praise for former St Andrew High athlete Annakaye Campbell and Trinidadian Samoy Hackett.

Outstanding performances

"These two athletes were outstanding and their performances motivated the other girls," added Thomas.

Campbell, who finished second in the women's Pentathlon with 3,742 points, went on to take the gold in the long jump with 6.17 metres. Hackett had a winning time of 23.83 seconds in the 200 metres and a second-place finish in the 60 metres in 7.13 seconds.

Thomas' girls gained most of their points in the sprint events as Jamaicans Janika Martell (7.39), Shauna Kay Wright (7.44), Jody Ann Powell (7.47) and Trinidadian Nandy Cameron (7.54) finished third, fourth, sixth and seventh, respectively, in the 60 metres. Martell was also third in the 200 metres in 24.44 seconds, with Cameron (24.60) taking fifth. Former Camperdown High athlete Carla Thomas had a second-place finish in the 400 metres in 55.06 seconds while former Holmwood Technical jumper Natoya Thompson ended third in the high jump with 1.74 metres.

Williams continued to show signs that she is one of Jamaica's best prospects in the sprint hurdles, as she raced to an impressive 8.07 seconds for a new record in the preliminary round of the 60 metres hurdles. She then came back to win the final in 8.20.

Former Vere Technical athlete Kawayne Fisher, representing Lincoln University, had the best individual result among the Jamaican men. Fisher sped to victory in the 60 metres in 6.64 seconds before finishing third in the 200 metres in 21.62.