The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

Fresh off her third place finish in the 100 metres behind Olympic and world champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce a week ago, Bahamian sprinter Anthonique Strachan racked up a second place as they moved up to the 200m behind her Jamaican arch rival over the weekend.

Now in Jamaica where she is training under the Maximising Velocity and Power Track & Field Club (MVP), which was founded by Stephen Francis, Paul Francis, David Noel and Bruce James in September 1999, Strachan competed for the second time in another closed circuit competition without any fanfare.

This time, Fraser-Pryce, one of the staple athletes in MVP, but representing Nike, ran out of lane four in the last of the four sections of the women’s 200m at the Velocity Fest at Jamaica College to win her second consecutive race in 22.74 seconds into a -0.9m/s wind.

Turning up the heat a little too late in lane eight after she watched as Fraser-Pryce started to pull away on the home stretch, Strachan, the 2012 World Under-20 sprint double champion, ended up in second in 23.05. Shashalee Forbes trailed in third in lane six in 23.39.

Over the Independence holiday weekend, Strachan competed in the first Velocity Fest 2020 All Comers Meet at the Ashenheim Stadium, but in the 100m where she placed third in 11.84.

Fraser-Pryce was the winner in a world-leading 11 seconds flat in an unfavourable 2.2m/s wind. Shashalee Forbes of Sprintec Track Club was second in 11.49.

Both meets were held without any fans in the stands as Jamaica made some inroads to the return of normalcy for track and field in the COVID-19 environment.

World Athletics has yet to resume its international competition, except for the Weltklasse Zurich Virtual Inspirational Games where Bahamian quarter-miler Shaunae Miller-Uibo clashed with American sprinter Allyson Felix and Switzerland’s Mujinga Kambundji in a 150 metre race that was held simultaneously in three different locations.

Felix, the 34-year-old mother, competing against Miller-Uibo, 26, for the first time since they clashed at the 2017 World Championships in London, England, posted the fastest time of the trio in 16.81 seconds in Walnut, California.

Miller-Uibo, competing out of Bradenton, Florida, was second in 17.15 as she contested her second race for the year since her defeat at the 2019 World Championships in Doha, Qatar, while Kambundji, the 28-year-old World Championships’ 200m bronze medallist, was third in 17.38 as she competed in Zurich.