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Thursday,
June 8, 2006 McFarlane Anticipates Great Season
Jamaica's Olympic 400m hurdles silver medallist Danny McFarlane anticipates great things towards the end of the season. "I think I'm looking for great things at the end of the year," said McFarlane. McFarlane, who finished second behind Dominican Republic's Felix Sanchez at the 2004 Athens Olympic, made these comments after his 'below par' performance at last weekend's (June 3) Reebok Grand Prix in NewYork. "It wasn't a perfect race," he said after his victory. "But I think we'll (he and his coach) be happy knowing that I led them coming> through the line. The 33-year-old McFarlane, at one stage found himself behind, but used his speed to make up the small gap and took sole possession of the race after clearing the ultimate flight of hurdles to cruise to the finish line in a season's-best 49.27 seconds. Paris' World Championships silver medallist Joey Woody of United States was second in 49.39 while Ian Weekley (50.11), Adrian Findlay (51.37) and Josef Robertson (51.77) finished sixth, 12th and 13th respectively. "It's never easy for a sprinter to run on a wet surface, but I was able to get a good feel for the track and that helped me win," said the former national champion over the distance. "You never feel that you can win every race, but I did feel that I trained well enough to win and I did." McFarlane, who switched from the flat event to the hurdles in 2003, said he did some homework on 400m hurdlers before making the change. "I just kind of analyzed the 400m hurdlers (before me) and thought I was good enough to compete with them." McFarlane, who holds personal bests of 48.00 (400m hurdles) and 44.90 (400m), was the only Jamaican winner at the meet, as World Junior 200m record holder Usain Bolt and Olympic 200m champion Veronica Campbell were beaten in the 200m and 100m events respectively. Bolt ran 20.25 seconds to finish behind world leader , American Wallace Spearmon (20.09) while Campbell (11.11) finished behind Sydney Olympic triple gold medallist Marian Jones (11.06) in the women's 100m. Commonwealth Games 200m champion Omar Brown was sixth in 20.60 while Chris Williams, the 2001 World Championships silver medallist, was fourth in 20.46. Sheri-Ann Brooks, the reining Commonwealth Games champion was fourth in the women's 100m in 11.37. Jermaine Gonzales, third at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia, was fourth in the men's 400m in 45.22, beaten by winner Keron Clement 44.71. Davian Clarke was seventh in 46.25. Ronetta Smith (51.80) and Shereefa Lloyd (53.05) were fourth and sixth respectively. Lacena Golding-Clarke (13.11) and Vonette Dixon (13.35) were fourth and seventh in the 100m hurdles respectively. Peta-Gaye Dowdie (23.77) was seventh in the women's 200m while Dorian Scott (18.88m) was fifth in the men's shot put. Contributed by Yadvendrasinhji
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