Francique posts season's best in Valencia

by Michael Bascombe

Alleyne Francique ran a season’s best 46.98 seconds to finish second at the Reunion Internacional Atletismo “Ciudad de Valencia” on Saturday.

It was a major boost for Francique as he prepares to defend his world title in the same city of Valencia next month.

“I ran a very careful race this time,” he said comparing his two previous misfortunes last month where he was disqualified in Glasgow, England and was bumped in Linz, Austria.

“I wanted something on the board. I’m going to run better, I’m right where I want to be,” Francique said.

He next turns to Athens, Greece and Birmingham, England for back-to-back races on Wednesday and Saturday.

Also, Trish Bartholomew (University of Alabama) won the women’s 400 metres at the Adidas Classic at the University of Nebraska on Saturday. Her winning time of 53.87 seconds is an NCAA Provisional.

At the New Balance Collegiate Invitational in New York on Friday, Neisha Bernard-Thomas won the women’s 800 metres in 2:05.32.

Kendell Simon (Findlay University) was second in the men’s 800 metres in 1:53.48 and Kevn Bowen (Essex County College) and Joel Redhead (Bethune-Cookman University) finished 8th and 10th with timings of 48.13 and 48.36 seconds respectively in the men’s 400 metres' final.

They posted 47.70 and 47.63 seconds respectively in Friday’s preliminaries.

On the women’s side, Allison George (Texas A&M) – 56. 19 seconds and Rockel Mitchell (Bethune-Cookman University) – 56.29 seconds failed to qualify for the women’s final. They were 26th and 29th respectively in the prelims.

However, Mitchell finished seventh in the long jump championship with 6.02 metres.

At the Boise State Bronco Invitational, Nesha Simeon (Boise State University) was 17th in the women's 60 metres in 8.16 seconds and 15th in the 200 metres in 26.23 seconds.

Over at the Middle Tennessee Valentines Invite, Salisa Marryshow (Tennessee State University) finished second in the women's 400 metres in 57.71 seconds and 12th in the 200m in 26.20 seconds, while Danielle Abraham, also of TSU, was 6th over the 800 metres in 2:21.64 and 13th overall in the One Mile in 5:21.72.

Photo credits: Gary Anolik