T&T sprinter Sparkle McKnight had a top-five finish at the Gyulai Istv‡n Memorial in Hungary yesterday.

Competing in the Women’s 400 metres hurdles event, McKnight finished fifth in a time of 56.90 seconds.

American Ashley Spencer won the race in a time of 55.36 seconds while Janieve Russell of Jamaica won silver .29 seconds behind Spencer.

Bahrain’s Aminat Jamal ran away with bronze in clocking a season-best time of 56.21 seconds.

Speaking to Guardian Media Sports after the race, McKnight said she felt she got a difficult lane and it was tough for her to medal as a result.

“It was my first time competing from lane one. I ran to a different strategy meaning I got out to stay with the rest of the field and I didn’t have much to finish the last hundred (metres) of the race cause I had to work so hard on the first part,” McKnight said.

But McKnight wasn’t too hard on herself since she has rounding into top form for the World Championships later in the year in Qatar (September 28-October 6) as her main goal.

“All in all, brick by brick, I’m building and I believe in myself and my programme, so it’s now onto the next race. I have a couple of meets in Europe still and then senior trials at the end of July, after which I’ll go to the Pan Am Games.”

She’s still trying to achieve the qualifying mark for the World Championships but is confident she will be able to attain this with hard work.