T&T track stars Jereem Richards and Deon Lendore continued their progression to the upcoming Tokyo Olympic Games in Japan with third place finishes in respective events at the USA Track and Field Golden Games in Walnut, California, on Sunday

Lendore’s success came in the men’s 400m final, also producing a season’s best 45.04 to bag the bronze medal behind another pair from the USA, the 2016 world junior champion Michael Norman, winning with 44.40 and second-placed Michael Cherry (44.86).

Machel Cedenio face the starter in the men’s 400m B final and topped the field in 45.47 seconds, crossing ahead of Marcus Chambers (46.39) and Myles Pringle (46.40), respectively.

National sprinter Michelle-Lee Ahye who competed in her second meet since returning from a two-year ban placed fifth in the women’s 200m B final, in 23.57. Winning the dash was Britain’s Jodie Williams (23.03), followed by USA’s Jaide Stepter (23.27), Shawnti Jackson (23.46) and Chloe Abbott (23.53), respectively.

Ahye opened her season at the West Coast Relays in California on May 2 where finished third in the women’s 200m dash in 23.47.

Portious Warren was the lone T&T athlete competing on the field. She challenged the women’s shot put and was an eighth-place finisher with a best attempt of 17.84 metres which achieved on her first throw. She fouled the remaining five throws.

Maggie Ewen (19.32m) of the United States won the event with Jamaican Danniel Thomas-Dodd second with 18.91m and American Jessica Ramsey, third with a 18.58m throw.

At the Southwestern Athletic Championships in Prairie View, Texas, junior Safiya John of the University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff (UAPB) was sensational. The junior emerged the women’s heptathlon champion tallying 5,450 points and became the first Lady Lion to collect a gold medal in the event.

John, who is currently ranked 19th in the nation in the women’s heptathlon placed first in each of the seven disciplines. She completed four events on Friday including the 100m hurdles where John dominated clocking a time of 13.63, the high jump where her leaped a new personal best of 1.70m, in the shot put, she won with a 10.94m-mark and closed the day with a 25.17-clocking to top the 200m to head into day two leading with 3,348 points.

The following day, her domination continued winning the long jump (5.60m), javelin throw (38.80m), and 800m (2:27.19).

John was done yet though, on the third and final day she added a a silver medal to her collection after leaping 1.67m in the high jump, then hurdled to gold in the women’s 100m hurdles with 13.66 (1.3). This after advancing with the fastest qualifying time of 14.02 (0.1) out of the preliminaries.

The T&T multi-sport athlete also competed in the triple jump, placing fourth (12.27) and the long jump, finishing 10th (5.48), event she was challenged by fellow local athlete Caitlin Ragoonanan. The UAPB freshman placed sixth (12.08m) and seventh (5.59m), respectively.

Another T&T athlete, Joanna Rogers, the duo’s schoolmate competed in two events. In the 800m, the freshman placed 14th (2:33.10) and her UAPB quartet finished fifth in the 4x400m relay (3:51.10).

T&T also had a local athlete shine in the men’s dacathlon with Franklyn Stanislaus copping silver in another successful performance for UAPB. The sophomore tallied 6,134 points.

He finished day one leading in the event with 3s762 points after competing in five disciplines including the 100m, winning in 10.67, a personal best. Stanislaus then jumped against the wind and finished second in the long jump (6.58), placed second in the shot put (11.86m), tied for first in the high jump (1.86m) and finished the day by winning the 400m (49.59 seconds. On the second day, he continued where he left off and respectively won the 110m hurdles (15.29), placed third in the discus (29.72m), fifth in the pole vault (3.00m), javelin throw (35.52) and fifth in the 1,500m (5: 34.44).

Stanislaus also compete in sixth other events but did not medal in the five individual field events he competed in. He placed seventh in the 110m hurdles (15.30) had eighth place finishes in both the pole vault (3.25m) and javelin (35.72m), was 10th in the long jump (6.63m) and 12th in the high jump (1.78m).

In the love team event he raced in, Stanislaus ran the first lege to help his squad to third spot with 3:13.21 in the 4x400m.

Clement Campbell Jr also competed in the long jump and the freshman’s 6.70m-leap placed him ninth.

At the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Outdoor Track and Field Championships held at North Carolina A&T in Greensboro, Coppin State senior Aaron Lewis was a ninth-place finisher in the men’s 110m hurdles with a windy but slow 15.48 (2.7 wind). He placed fourth in heat two of the preliminaries.

Lewis, however, made up in the 4x100m relay taking home a bronze after making the third handover to help his team cross in 40.91.

On Saturday, Tyra Gittens was back to her winning ways at the Aggie Invitational at College Station in Texas

The Texas A&M University junior won the women’s high jump 1.84m at the meet hosted by her school and placed second in the shot put 13.