The 35th Vancouver Sun Harry Jerome International Track Classic concluded with a record 7450 in attendance over the two evenings at Swangard Stadium last week.
The China versus Canada Team Sprint Challenge saw the Pacific World Cup go to the host country 139-100 in the eight event contest over 100, 400, 4x100m and 4x400m events for men and women.
The regular Jerome Classic attracted athletes from 10 countries, China, France, USA, US Virgin Islands, Jamaica, Great Britain, Australia, Mexico Russian and Canada. Eighty-three achieved their seasonal best performances and 45 recorded their all-time PBs.
Three meet records and one British Columbia record were broken.
The Canadian quartet in the 4x100m of Gavin Smellie, Aaron Brown, Bolade Ajomale and Andre De Grasse dominated with 38.42 for a new meet record. They broke the record of 38.59 set in 1993 by the Santa Monica Track Club anchored by Olympic champion, Carl Lewis. This ranks Canada sixth in the world for 2018.
China’s women team of YUAN Qiqi, GE Manqi, HUANG Guifen, LIANG Xiaojing also set a new mark in the 4x100m with a winning time of 43.75, the ninth fastest in the world so far this year. Runner-up Canada also eclipsed the old record (44.51) with a clocking of 44.30.
Madeline Price, Aiyanna Stiverne, Travia Jones and Sage Watson ran 3:32.08 in the 4x400m relay to break Canada’s meet record set in 2007 of 3:36.67. Sage, who is ranked sixth on the IAAF world list in the 400m hurdles, ran 52.7 split to anchor Team Canada. She will run her favourite event, the 400m hurdles in the national championships in Ottawa this week.
The Canadian team for the NACAC championships set for Toronto on August 10-12, will be selected after the national championships.
Finally, the Coquitlam Cheetahs broke the B.C. record in the 4x100m relay with their time of 39.84 just behind China’s 38.62. Nick Ayin led off to Jerome Blake to Nathan Mah to anchor, James Linde.
Blake had a terrific meet winning the open 100m in 10.35(-0.8) and recording a personal best in the 200m with his 20.74(-0.4) behind Gavin Smellie’s 20.72(-0.4). He is pointed towards a breakthrough to the national team at the championships this week.
