FRESH OFF A SILVER MEDAL performance last weekend at the IAAF/BTC World Relays, Barbadian sprinter Mario Burke was back on a medal podium yesterday.
Burke won gold and bronze medals at the historic Penn Relays in the college men’s 100 metres and 4×200 metres relay, competing for the University of Houston.
In the 100 metres, Burke clocked a wind-aided (+2.7) 10.17 seconds to finish behind teammate Eli Hall-Thompson and Utech’s (Jamaica) Michael Campbell who did 10 seconds flat and 10.09, respectively.
One of his old CARIFTA Games rivals, Jamaican Raheem Chambers, who is now competing for Auburn University, was eighth in 10.50 seconds.
Burke also won gold with the 4×200 metres team, coming back after tasting disappointment in the 4×100 metres, where they failed to finish.
Shrugging that off, the team clocked 1 minute 21.17 seconds ahead of GC Foster (Jamaica) in 1:21.55 and South Carolina with 1:22.01.
Burke missed a third medal when the 4×400 metres team finished fourth in 3:07.32, where he split 46.89 on the third leg after a split of 46.57 in the preliminaries.
Auburn won in 3:05.19.
Meanwhile, Burke’s Barbados relay teammate Burkheart Ellis Jr finished fifth in the men’s Olympic development 100 metres in 10.32 and another Barbadian, Stephen Headley, was sixth in 10.41. The winning time was 10.11 seconds.
Team Christ Church Foundation finished fifth in the high school boys’ 4×100 metres for large schools in 42.71. Wolmer’s Boys’ of Jamaica were the winners, a full second faster in 41.71.
Yuriko Harewood was joint eighth in the high jump with a clearance of 1.67 metres as Jamaica’s Janique Burgher went seven centimetres better than her rivals with a winning leap of 1.78m. (SAT)
