Ahye places sixth at World Indoors 60m, Lendore in 400m final

MICHELLE-LEE Ahye could only muster a sixth-place finish in the women’s 60-metre final, on the second day of the IAAF World Indoor Track and Field Championships, in Birmingham, England yesterday.

And fellow TT athlete, veteran Cleopatra Borel, ended in ninth position in the women’s shot put contest.

Ahye clocked a season’s best time of 7.13 but she was no match for Ivory Coast’s Murielle Ahoure, who had a world-leading time of 6.97, and her compatriot Marie-Josee Ta Lou, who recorded a personal best 7.05; the same time as Mujinga Kambundji of Switzerland, but Ta Lou got the edge after a photo finish.

Olympic 100 and 200m queen Elaine Thompson of Jamaica was fourth in 7.08, while Netherlands’ Dafne Schippers was fifth in 7.10. Completing the field were Carolle Zahi of France (7.19) and Remona Burchell of Jamaica (7.50).

In the first round, Kelly-Ann Baptiste made her exit after she placed fifth in heat six, in a season’s best clocking of 7.25.

In a cast of 15 finalists, Borel threw her best, 17.80 metres, with her second attempt. However, Anita Marton of Hungary took gold with her sixth and last effort, 19.62m, followed by Danniel Thomas-Dodd of Jamaica (19.22m) and Lijiao Gong of China (19.08m).

There were mixed results for TT in the men’s 400m semi-finals, with Deon Lendore placing second in the third heat, in 46.33 seconds, behind Czech Republic’s Pavel Maslak (46.32).

But Asa Guevara finished fifth in heat two, in 46.91, with Spain’s Oscar Husillos (45.69) and United States’ Michael Cherry (45.73) advancing to today’s final.

Also on today’s agenda will be the men’s 60m heats (featuring Keston Bledman and Emmanuel Callender), semi-finals and final; men’s 60m hurdles (featuring Mikel Thomas); and men’s 4x400m heats (featuring the TT squad of Lendore, Guevara, Jereem Richards, Renny Quow, Lalonde Gordon and Machel Cedenio).