Ryan Brathwaite beat two of the London 2012 Olympic Games medallists last weekend, finishing third in the 110 metres hurdles event at the Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa.
Dubbed the London Games Rematch – one of several on the programme – the race included gold medallist and world record holder Aries Merritt, silver medallist Jason Richardson and Hansle Parchment of Jamaica who won the bronze medal.
Brathwaite clocked 13.55 seconds to snatch third place, but it was another Jamaican, Andrew Riley, who upset the field with a time of 13.43 seconds, running into a 3.2 headwind. Merritt was second in 13.48 and Parchment seventh in 14.33.
Richardson was disqualified after a false start.
Brathwaite qualified for the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Senior Championships, but the time was outside of the World Championships “B” standard of 13.50 seconds. His season opener of 13.36 seconds was wind-aided.
Greggmar Swift joined the growing list of qualifiers for CAC when he did 13.76 in the collegiate race at the same meet. He was second behind Illinois’ Vanier Joseph (13.59) also battling a headwind of 1.3 metres per second.
The final CAC qualifier, bringing the total to 15, is sprinter Rimar Christie.
A junior at Northwest Nazarene, Christie did a personal best 10.38 seconds to win the 100 metres last weekend, just inside the standard of 10.40 seconds, at the Idaho-Utah Border Clash. He also won the 200 metres in 21.17 seconds, but that effort was wind-aided.
Henderson Dottin was among several other Barbadians who were at the Drake Relays although they mainly competed with their schools’ relay teams.
Dottin was eighth in the men’s high jump with a best of 2.11 metres. American Dusty Jones won with 2.31 metres, while Bahamians Donald Thomas and Trevor Barry both cleared 2.25m to be second and third, respectively.
Shavonne Husband of Missouri State did the 100 metres in 12.55 seconds and did not reach the final, but teamed up with Althia Maximilien and others in the 4x100m in 46.16.
Maximilien also competed in the 4×200 and 1600 metres relays.
Illinois State’s Sade Sealy ran in the distance medley relay, 1600 metres relay and 4×400 metres while Southern Illinois’ Kemar Jones and Nikolai Gall ran in the 4×400 and Gall in the 4×100 as well.
