Good weekend results for Grenadian athletes

NEW YORK, January 23, 2011 - Grenadian Kirani James set a school (University of Alabama) record and automatically qualified for the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships with a time of 20.58 in the 200m at the Cherry & Silver Invitational Friday evening in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

James' time is the fastest in the U.S. this season and set an Albuquerque Convention Center record by 0.16 seconds and bested the previous UA record of 20.71 set by Latonel Williams in 2003. Last season, James had an indoor best of 20.94.

Over in Texas, Grenadians Janelle Redhead and Rondell Bartholomew were stand-outs for South Plains College at the Texas Tech Invitational this weekend.

The quartet of Janeil Bellille, Jura Levy, Sparkle McKnight, and Janelle Redhead made a mockery of the women's 4x400 meter relay record that was set just last week and just missed a facility record when Redhead ran down Texas Tech's anchor to claim the victory in 3:37.49.

The final race of the night featured a highly anticipated matchup between the Texan and Red Raider men's 4x400 meter relay teams that just about lived up to its billing. Sophomore Anton Kokorin led the Texans off against former Texan and current Red Raider, Bryce Brown.

Both teams received great lead off legs and Kokorin handed off to Isaiah Gill who had what might have been the unperceivable task of running with former United States 400 meter runner-up, Gil Roberts.

Gill gave Roberts all he could handle and handed off to freshman Bralon Taplin who put Texan anchorman Rondell Bartholomew only a couple strides behind another former Texan, Latoy Williams. After one lap, Bartholomew made a move to pass Williams and went on to run through the finish line in a new NJCAA record time of 3:05.18. The time also betters the facility record set in 2005. Currently, no team from the NCAA division one level has run faster.

In the women's 400 meter dash, SPC athletes finished 3^rd-4^th-5^th, led by Amoy Blake's 56.88 second finishing time. Janelle Redhead, who set the school record in the event last week, crossed the line in 56.90 seconds. Shona-Gaye Tracey (57.30) was fifth.