NEW DELHI: He was off the blocks in a flash. Ephraime Lerone Clarke, then breezed through the men’s 100m in 10.12 seconds to become the fastest athlete of the CWG.
The Jamaican, coming into the event with a personal best of 9.99 secs, staved off a late challenge from European silver medallist Mark Anthony Lewis-Francis who recovered from a disappointing start to take silver in 10.20 secs. Trinidadian Aaron Armstrong (10.24 secs) claimed the bronze medal. Earlier, Australia’s Sally Pearson (11.28), essentially a sprint hurdler, sped past Nigeria’s Osayemi Oudamola (11.32) and Natasha Mayers (11.37) of St Vincent and the Grenadines to finish first in the women’s event. However, the result has not officially been declared as England team launched a protest with the competition manager.
The race had got off after a confusion suggesting that Pearson and England’s Laura Turner were disqualified. “The winner will be declared on Friday,” an official said. Two new games records were set in athletics by Canadians with Sultana Frizell becoming the proud owner of the first one at the Delhi CWG with an effort of 68.57 m in the women’s hammer throw where India’s Hardeep Kaur (59.96) finished 10th.
Dylan Armstrong’s 21.02 m in his final attempt in the men’s shot put brought up the other record. Indians Omprakash Singh (19.51 m) and Saurabh Vij (18.60) failed to rise to the occasion.
Among other Indian, high jumpers Hari Shankar Roy and Nikhil Chittarasu qualified for the final with identical jumps of 2.16 m while Khatum Jhuma recorded a personal best of 4:12.30 secs in the women’s 1500 heats to qualify for the second round. Interestingly, Mandeep Kaur timed 52.60 secs to entered the final of the women’s one lap race ahead of national record holder Manjeet Kaur who disappointed with 53.04 secs. Earlier, sprinters Abdul Najeeb Qureshi and Satti Geetha were ousted in the semifinals.