GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Donald Thomas was the most successful English-speaking Caribbean athlete on Thursday at the Pan American Games.
The 2007 World champion from The Bahamas grabbed the men’s high jump gold medal, clearing 2.32 metres on his second attempt at the height, finishing two centimetres higher than Ecuador’s Diego Ferrin, whose 2.30m was a personal best.
Victor Moya of Cuba was third with a clearance of 2.26, prevailing over James Grayman of Antigua & Barbuda (2.24) and Brendan Williams of Dominica with a personal best of 2.21.
Four English-speaking Caribbean athletes, three from Jamaica, finished in the runner-up positions in their events.
Trinidad and Tobago’s Cleopatra Borel-Brown was measured at a personal best distance of 18.46 metres, finishing behind Cuba’s Misleydis Gonzalez, whose distance was 11cm farther.
Isa Phillips of Jamaica grabbed the silver medal in the men’s 400 metres hurdles, which Cuban Omar Cisneros won with a Pan Am Games record time of 47.99 seconds.
Phillips clocked 48.82 secs, but Cisneros ran away from the field to land a new national record and the first sub-48 time in the history of the Games.
Simone Facey collected a second silver medal for the Jamaicans, when she ran 22.86 seconds to finish 10 hundredths-of-a-second slower than Brazilian winner Ana Lemos.
Tameka Williams of St Kitts & Nevis ran a personal best time of 23.06 for fourth place behind Mariely Sanchez of the Dominican Republic (20.62).
Lansford Spence, another Jamaican, won silver in the men’s race, clocking 20.38, one hundredths of a second slower than Roberto Skyers of Cuba.
Michael Mathieu of The Bahamas placed fourth in 20.62 beaten for the bronze medal by Bruno De Barros (20.45) of Brazil.
