Jamaican athletes continue to impress with gold winning performance at the Commonwealth Games underway in the Gold Coast, Australia.
On Wednesday morning Jamaica’s Aisha Praught created Caribbean track and field history when she, in remarkable fashion, won the women 3000meter steeplechase in a personal best time of 9:21.00 seconds. In winning the gold Praught defeated the event favorite Celliphine Chespol of Kenya who was second in a time of 9:22.61 secs. This is Jamaica’s first gold medal in steeplechase at a major event.
On Tuesday, another Jamaican, Ronald Levy captured the men’s 110meters hurdles title. The 25-year-old clocked 13.19 seconds, leading a Jamaica one-two as teammate Hansle Parchment copped silver in 13.22. Australian Nicholas Hough stopped the clock at a personal best 13.38 to claim bronze.
Javon Francis won bronze for Jamaica in the men’s 400m final with a season’s best of 45.11 seconds. The race was won by Botswana’s Issac Makwala in 44.35, while his compatriot Baboloki Thebe finished second in 45.09s.
As of the close of Wednesday’s events Jamaica had won 3 gold, 5 silver and 6 bronze medals, placing 11th in the medal standings. Trinidad and Tobago had 1 gold and 1 silver to place 18th; Bermuda and Grenada with 1 gold medal to tie for the 21st place; the Bahamas with 1 silver to place 26th; and Dominica 1 bronze medal to place 31st.
