The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Chief Sports Editor

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

WOMEN’S 60 metres world indoor and record holder Devynne Charlton was back in action for the first time over the weekend since she competed in her second straight Olympic Games.

Charlton, who duplicated her sixth-place finish from the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo, Japan to the 2024 games in Paris, France, lined up in another highly competitive women’s 100m hurdles at the Wanda Diamond League Meet in Rome, Italy. 

After getting out with the pack of competitors from the start, Charlton clipped the ninth of 10 hurdles and pushed down the final hurdle. She was unable to finish the race as she fell and rolled over on the track at the Stadio Olimpico.

The 28-year-old Bahamian national record holder at 12.44 ended up with a DNF (did not finish) behind her name. In contrast to the Olympics when she had a similar outcome in paris as she DNF, Jamaican Ackera Nugent pulled away from the field to post the winning time in a personal best of 12.24 seconds for a national record. 

It was a world leading mark, surpassing the previous best of 12.25 by American Olympic champion Masai Russell; the meet record of 12.37 by Puerto Rico’s Olympic bronze medalist Jasmine Camacho-Quinn, whose time was 12.37.

Russell, the training partner of Charlton in Lexington, Kentucky,, who ran 12.33 for the gold in Paris, was second in 12.31, while the Netherlands’ Nadine Visser, who was short of the medal stand at the Olympics in fourth in 12.43, got third in 12.52 in Rome.

Cyrena Samba-Mayela of France, who was fourth in Paris in 12.57, finished in that same spot in 12.57 and American Alaysha Johnson, seventh in Paris, came through for fifth in 12.66.

Former world record holder Kendra Harrison, who didn’t compete in the Olympics, was sixth in 12.70 and Ditaji Kambundji of Switzerland, who didn;t make the final in Paris, was eventh in 12.78 and Giada Carmassi of Italy came in eighth in 13.20.

Charlton, who got left in the blocks and wasn’t enough to make up enough grounds to get in the medal hunt in Paris, went out with the pack. 

She was actually in a shot for one of the top spots until she clipped the ninth hurdle and didn’t make it over the tenth and final one and wasn’t able to finish the race.