Jerome Campbell, Shenese Walker win outdoor conference doubles
Jamaicans Jerome Campbell of the University of Northern Colorado and Shenese Walker of Florida State University were double winners at their outdoor championships at the weekend.
Campbell retained his 100m/110m hurdles double at the Big Sky Outdoor Championships held at Sacramento State University, while Walker won the women’s sprint double at the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) championships held at Wake Forest University in North Carolina.
They were among Jamaican winners at their respective championships including Habiba Harris of Florida, who was the SEC 100m hurdles champion, and Ralford Mullings of Oklahoma who won the men’s discus throw while Jhavor Bennett of Kansas State won the men’s triple jump at the Big 12 championships.
Campbell, who was part of the Jamaican team to the World Athletics Indoor Championships in March, days after he had won the men’s 60m at the Big Sky Indoors, ran 10.25 seconds (0.7m/s) to win the men’s 100m at the Big Sky event, 40 minutes after he had won the 110m hurdles in 13.43 seconds (-0.1m/s).
These were the same times he ran in the preliminaries.
Walker, who was competing at her first ACC Outdoor Championships, ran wind-aided times of 10.99 seconds (2.8m/s) to win the 100m and 22.72 seconds (3.7m/s) for the 200m.
Harris, the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships gold medallist last year, ran 12.75 seconds (1.8m/s) in the final of the 100m hurdles at the SEC championships held at the University of Kentucky, after she ran a personal best and NCAA leading 12.62 seconds (1.6m/s) in the preliminaries.
Mullings threw 66.48m to win his first NCAA title after he was third in 2022 while representing Arizona State and 16th in 2023 while at the University of Arkansas.
He was also seventh in the men’s shot put final with 18.66m.
Trevor Gunzell of the University of Alabama was second with 63.44m and his teammate Christopher Young was sixth with 59.01m.
Bennett, the former St Elizabeth Technical athlete, was a surprise winner of the men’s triple jump at the Big 12 Championship staged at the University of Kansas when he produced a personal best 16.21m (1.6m/s) in the last round that moved him up from fifth place to the top of the podium.
Also at the Big 12 championships, Safhia Hinds of Kansas State ran 55.90 seconds to win the women’s 400m hurdles, beating Calisha Taylor of Baylor University (56.10).
Clemson University’s Shantae Foreman and Oneka Wilson retained their women’s triple jump and 100m hurdles titles, respectively, at the ACC Outdoor championships.
Foreman jumped 13.52m (0.3m/s) and Wilson ran 13.07 seconds (-0.5m/s) for their wins.
Shaquena Foote of San Diego State just missed completing doubles at the Mountain West Conference indoors and outdoors in the same season after she retained her outdoor 400m title, running 52.12 seconds but was third in the 200m final in 23.28 seconds (1.9m/s).
Meanwhile at the SEC championships, Adrienne Adams of Auburn was second in the women’s discus throw with a season’s best 57.30m and Luke Brown of the University of Kentucky was also second in the men’s triple jump with 16.33m (0.9m/s).
Rivaldo Marshall of the University of Arkansas ran 1:45.81 minutes for third place in the men’s 800m while his teammate Tyrice Taylor was sixth in 1:47.16.
Dejanae Oakley of the University of Georgia was fourth in the women’s 400m in 51.34 seconds and her teammate Shemar Chambers was sixth in the men’s final in 46.21 seconds.
Jaheim Stern of Louisiana State University finished sixth in the 110m hurdles running 13.55 seconds (0.5m/s).
Demario Prince of Baylor was second in the 110m hurdles at the Big 12 Conference in 13.18 seconds (0.3m/s) with Toni-Ann Forbes of Texas Tech placing sixth in the 100m hurdles in 13.32 seconds (0.9m/s).
Annishka McDonald of West Virginia University was tied for fifth in the women’s high jump with a personal best equalling 1.78m and Brandon Lloyd of Arizona State was eighth in the men’s discus throw with 55.63m.
Malaika Cunningham of the University of Villanova won the Big East Conference women’s high jump with 1.75m while former two-time champion Danielle Anglin of South Dakota was second in the women’s high jump at the Summit League Outdoors with 1.73m.