The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

While Shaunae Miller continues to excel on the professional circuit, Devynne Charlton is making her presence felt on the collegiate scene.

The duo topped the performances turned in by Bahamians over the weekend at various meets held in the United States.

Miller, who abandoned the remainder of her collegiate eligibility after just her freshman year, lowered her national 300 metres indoor record to 36.10 metres as she won the AT&T Women’s Elite race at the Millrose Games in New York on Saturday.

The time was another meet record as well. American Francena McCorory, competing for Adidas, was second in 36.50 and Jamaican Stacey-Ann Smith was third in 38.01.

While Miller, who competed for Adidas, was not available for comments, her coach George Cleare at the University of Georgia, said she’s progressing as well as expected as she prepare for her first appearance at the IAAF World Indoors in Sopot, Poland from March 7-9.

“She’s ran two 300 metres and each time she’s broken the facility and meet records as she moved up from being 11th all-time to number six all-time for the indoor 300m and each time it was a national record, so it’s a pretty good start to her season,” Cleare pointed out.

Cleare said Miller eon’t compete again until she gets to Poland, but they will continue to work on the rest of her technical race that she has to utilise in the 400m as a tall athlete.

“It’s hard to say how fast she can run because of the curve, but she’s ready to run fast. If she can put her race together, we can look forward to a really fast time from her at the World’s in a couple of weeks.”

Also at the meet, rebounding from a slight injury, Ryan Ingraham bounced back for a third place finish in the John Thomas men’s elite high jump with a leap of 2.24m. He trailed Mike Mason of Mizuno, who won with 2.30m and Dusty Jonas of United States of America with 2.24m.

Cox holding her own at Purdue Meanwhile at a home meet that wrapped up their indoor season at Purdue University, Boilermaker freshman Devynne Charlton had another career day as she qualified for the 60m dash finals with a prelim time of 7.66 seconds, the second-fastest time.

In the finals, she turned on the jets and finished second after crossing the line in 7.58 seconds. The time beat her previous best by 0.01 of a second and moves her up to sixth place by herself in Purdue history.

Charlton also had her best performance in the 200m dash. She ran a second-place time of 25.05 seconds. That time converts to 24.67 seconds, which is the fourth-fastest time in program history. Charlton decided to carry her career day into three events as she also ran a PR in the 60m hurdles.

She qualified for the finals with the second-fastest time in prelims, after finishing in 8.54 seconds. In the finals, she took second with her fastest time as a Boilermaker and the fourth-best time in program history, 8.44 seconds. Charlton is just 0.01 of a second out of third, which is held by teammate Ciana Tabb. Charlton is seventh in the conference this season.

“I felt pretty good about it, especially my hurdles,” said Charlton, when contacted about her performance. “The girl who won it ran an 8.3, so I know that if I hadn’t made so many mistakes, I could have been right up there with her, lowering my time even more.”

As for her 200 debut, Charlton said it was all about having some fun.

“My coaches wanted me to try it out,” said Charlton, who is coached by Bahamians Orlando Greene and Norbert Elliott. “I just missed the school record with the converted time. But I was very pleased with my performance.”

Charlton, who is competing for Purdue with her injured Bahamian rival, Carmeisha Cox, said she’s now gearing up for the Big Ten Conference Championships in about two weeks.

“I’m very pleased. Being a freshman on the Big 10 list in hurdles, I’m the highest ranked hurdler as a freshman, so it speaks something about what I’m doing,” she said. “I’m very pleased with where I’m at and how I’m running right now.”