A safe pass from Asafa Powell to Michael Frater.
Photo by Kelvin Campbell-TrackLife
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From left, Michael Frater , Nesta Carter , Asafa Powell, Steve Mullings display their Penn Relay watches for winning the
USA vs. The World 4 x1 relay. Photo
by DPalmer-TrackLife
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Penn Relays fans have never seen Asafa Powell start a relay there, and the last time they saw him anchor one was in 2009. In that race, he pulled up some 30 meters out of the blocks after aggravating an ankle injury and hobbled to 41.24secs behind the high-powered US teams, among others, much to the disappointment of the crowd that wanted to see him put on a show.
Last year, Powell went to Penn as a spectator and watched Usain Bolt, Mario Forsythe, Yohan Blake and Marvin Anderson set a new Penn Relay 4x1 record at 37.90.
This time it was different. On Saturday, shouts and screams from the stands greeted the announcement of USA vs. The World men’s 4x1 relay, with the US and Jamaica as rivals again. That noise grew even louder when Jamaica’s Asafa Powell was seen with the baton in hand, ready to face the starter. Following a hush as the athletes settled into their blocks, the fans erupted again, when Powell rocketed out of the blocks and quickly covered the Americans Walter Dix and Justin Gatlin, the Trinidad Keston Bledman, Canada’s Justyn Warner and Gavin Smellie, Britain’s Ryan Scott, and Germany’s Christian Blum to open a commanding lead and send Michael Frater on his way.
A 2008 Olympic and 2009 Worlds relay gold medalist, Frater, with his signature rapid leg turnover and acceleration on the backstretch, kept the Americans Wallace Spearmon and Darvis Patton, and Trinidad’s Marc Burns at bay to hand things over to Nesta Carter, another Olympic relay gold medalist. Carter, who also has a bullet start and is an excellent curve runner, took care of Americans Shawn Crawford and Trell Krimmons, and Trinidad’s Emmanuel Callendar to hand over to Steve Mullings, who ran lead-off on Jamaica’s 2009 World Championships gold medal relay team.
Appearing not to be running at full throttle, Mullings held off Americans Mike Rodgers and Ivory Williams, and Trinidad’s Richard Thompson to stop the clock at 38.33 ahead of USA Red (38.43), USA Blue (38.66) and Trinidad (39.18). After the race, Mullings told Caribbean TrackLife that although the race was good, he doesn’t generally like running the anchor. “I am not a guy who likes the limelight,” he said.
However, the humble Mullings had nothing to worry about, for Powell was getting all the attention and enjoying every moment of it. “It was good,” Powell said in response to how he felt about running lead-off. He later told a post-race press conference that, "Over the years, my coach has been telling me that if I lead-off it would be a different race, and it would be hard for people to catch us. I have always been running the anchor and I just wanted to try something new, and it went well."
Powell, who has a personal best of 9.72 and is in fine form, has recently made his intention known that he will be challenging Bolt for sprinting supremacy this year.
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Kenia Sinclair (r) with
Melaine Walker (l), who ran the 400m leg, and Simone Facey,
the first 200m. Absent from the photo is the the second 200m runner Kerron Stewart.
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Sinclair Not Giving it Up
Jamaica’s Kenia Sinclair ran 1min, 57.06secs to anchor her team (Simone Facey, Kerron Stewart and Melanie Walker) to victory in the USA vs. the World Women Sprint Medley. Unlike last year when the Olympic and World 400m champion Melaine Walker was caught on her 400m leg before the handoff, Walker ran away from Sheena Tosta and left Sinclair with little work to do but to stay ahead. Sinclair extended the lead to win in an impressive 3:34.64 – just off their 2009 meet and world record of 3:34.56 – over USA Red with ace Phoebe Wright (3:37.81) and USA Blue (3.43.17.)
After the race, Sinclair jokingly said she wasn’t about to give up winning the medley until she retired.
"I have been working very hard. I opened in the middle of February with 1:58.6 after a long flight to Australia and two hours of sleep. After a month over there I knew I was in 1:57 shape,” she said in a post-race interview.
She later praised her team mates, noting that they did all the work to get the baton to her in the lead, which made it much easier for her to execute her race.
USA Victories
The USA Red Team of Lauryn Williams, Allyson Felix, Marshevet Myers and Carmelita Jeter took the USA vs. the World women’s 4x1 relay in a meet record 42.28secs ahead of second place USA Blue (42.64) and Jamaica (Kerron Stewart, Sherone Simpson, Aleen Bailey and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce), 3rd in 42.74. This is the second successive year that Carmelita Jeter has anchored USA red to victory.
A Caribbean All-Star team of Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie (Bah), Tahesia Harrigan (British Virgin Islands), Cedonie Mothersill (Cayman), and Carol Rodriquez (Puerto Rico) was 4th in 43.38.
The USA Red team of Debbie Dunn (51.1), Allyson Felix (50.3), Natasha Hastings (50.30), Sanya RIchards-Ross (51.18) captured the USA vs. The women’s 4x4 relay in 3:22.92 ahead of the USA Blue team (Dee Dee Trotter (51.5), Francena McCoroy (49.8), Keshia Baker (50.51), Monica Hargrove (51.39) in 3:23.17, and Jamaica (Shericka Williams (51.5), Novlene Williams-Mills (50.4), Christine Day (51.33), Kaliese Spencer (50.59)) third in 3:23.82.
Having gotten the baton with both US teams well ahead, Spencer, the 2010 Diamond League 400m hurdles winner, ran a superb leg for Jamaica to close in on Richards-Ross and Hargrove, but she came up short as she was left with too much work to do.
The Caribbean All-Star team (St. Kitts & Nevis’ Tiandra Ponteen (52.3), the Bahamas’ Debbie Ferguson (52.3), Jamaica’s Anastacia Leroy (53.22), and Guyana’s Aliana Pompey (52.58)) finished fourth in 3:30.40.
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Grenada's Rondell Bartholomew chases Chris Brown of the Bahamas in the 4x4 at the Penn Relays Saturday.
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Grenada The Big Surprise
In the men’s edition, the Bahamian team of Ramon Miller (46.5), Michael Mathieu (45.0), Andrae Williams (46.50), veteran Chris Brown (44.82) took silver in 3:02.79 behind the winner USA Red (3:02.40). However, the surprise of the race was the young Grenadian team of Joel Redhead (47.6), Kirani James (44.6), Kenion Herry (47.80), and Rondell Bartholomew (44.74) that placed third behind USA Red (3:02.40) and the Bahamas (3:02.79) with a respectable 3:04.69.
Barthlolomew recently clocked 44.65 on the flat 400m. Just after his fast-paced run, James remarked as he tried catch his breath: “…and two of our guys are not even fit.”
Jamaica was fifth in 3:06.40, with Michael Mason (47.0), Ramone McKenzie (47.7), Sanjay Ayre (46.40), and Duwayne Barrett (45.32).