Jamaica earns historic 1-2-3 (gold, silver & bronze) win at Commonwealth Games!
It was a medal-filled day for Jamaica yesterday (July 29) as the nation’s athletes swept all three medals on offer in the women’s 400m event at the at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland.
The historic feat was achieved after Stephanie McPherson took gold in 50.67 seconds to lead home the Jamaican 1-2-3 ahead of Novelene Williams-Mills and Christine Day.
Williams-Mills was second in 50.86 seconds with Day taking bronze in 51.09 seconds after finishing strongly down the stretch to edge ahead of 2010 champion Amantle Montsho of Botswana.
Earlier Kimberly Williams became the third Jamaican after O’Dayne Richards and Kemar Bailey-Cole to win an individual gold medal after leaping a season best 14.21 meters to win in the women’s triple jump final.
Her compatriot Shenieka Thomas however finished just outside the medals after ending 4th with a leap of 13.85 meters.
Andrew Riley continued the medal rush on the day by winning the men’s 110m hurdles in a time of 13.32 seconds ahead of England’s William Sharman (13.36) and Shane Brathwaite (13.49) of Barbados.
Action in the women’s 400 meters hurdles saw world leader Kaliese Spencer (55.45s) and former World Junior champion Jenieve Russell (56.16s) both advancing to the semi-finals after winning their respective heats while Ricardo Cunningham (1:47.71) sealed his spot in the 800 meters semi-finals after finishing third in his heat.
No Jamaican made it to the men’s 400m final after Rusheen McDonald (45.95s) was good enough for 4th place in semi-final 1 behind England’s Martin Rooney (45.22s), Trinidad & Tobago’s Jarrin Solomon (45.49s) and Chris Brown (45.55s) of the Bahamas.
Semi-final 2 saw Akeem Gauntlett (46.16s) failing to advance after placing 5th in the race that was won by Grenada’s Kirani James in 45.14s.
Demar Forbes meanwhile made it through to the final round of the men’s long jump with a leap of 7.90 meters, however Nicolas Gordon (7.37m) failed to make progress.
Jamaica’s medal tally now stands at 12 – 5 gold, 3 silver and 4 bronze.