By Jack Pfeifer
Aliann Pompey, the veteran New York sprinter, is expected to run the 400 meters at the Commonwealth Games next month in Delhi, India, returning to an event she won eight years ago in one of the biggest victories of a long, stellar career.
Pompey, 32 and running as well as ever, will represent her native Guyana. She won the CG in 2002, in 51.63. In the intervening eight seasons, she has competed in the Olympics in Athens and Beijing, and in World Championships in Berlin, Qatar, Japan, Helsinki, Moscow, Paris and England. This summer she won the U.S. club 200 championship, and ran a lifetime best in the 100. In all, Pompey has represented Guyana in nine World Championships, two Commonwealth Games and three Olympic Games. In 2000 she won the NCAA indoor championship, for her alma mater, Manhattan College.
Pompey is not the only athlete with New York roots expected to compete in the track and field division of this year’s Commonwealth Games, a historic event that began 80 years ago in Hamilton, Ontario, when it was called the British Empire Games, nor was she the first New Yorker to win a gold medal in track.
Erison Hurtault, the 25-year-old Columbia grad who represents the Caribbean nation of Dominica, has had an excellent 2010 season. Hurtault was fifth at the CAC in July, running 45.69 in the 400 – just off his PR of 45.40 from three seasons ago – and he clicked off a 21.15 200 PR earlier.
Deon Bascom, the veteran Westchester County half-miler, and the sprinter Lee Prowell both may be running for Guyana in addition to Pompey. The 31-year-old Bascom, often noted for his pacesetting abilities in local races, ran a splendid 1:48.52 800 in June, while Prowell ran 10.38 this summer, an outstanding time for a 35-year-old.
Another area half-miler has a chance to make the CG. Julius Mutekanga, who attended LIU, has run 1:49.28 this yea, fourth on the Ugandan list for 2010.
Athletes from the 54 Commonwealth nations are eligible. It is a hodgepodge of countries, ranging of course from the mother country, England; to large nations long independent of the throne, such as Canada, Australia, and the host nation itself, India, which fought its way to independence in 1947; to smaller countries such as Botswana – which boasts a quarter-miler Pompey will have trouble beating in the women’s 400 – and that little Caribbean nation called Jamaica.
Jamaica, however, is not sending its star sprinters to the meet. The October timing is awkward, but the main reason is financial. In the age of professionals and appearance fees, the CG is an anachronism. The top sprinters and their “representatives” are accustomed to hefty paydays, whereas at the CG, you run for your flag.
Usain Bolt long ago ruled out competing in Delhi, to the disappointment of the hosts, and joining him on the Jamaican sidelines will be Asafa Powell, Yohan Blake, Nesta Carter, Mario Forsythe, Michael Frater – all ran under 10.00 this year in the 100 – along with female stars, such as the Olympic champions Melaine Walker, Veronica Campbell-Brown, Sherone Simpson and Shelly-Ann Fraser. Even the New Yorker Edino Steele, a second-tier Jamaican runner – 20.77w/45.78 this summer – was not named to the traveling squad.
The result is that the proud, short-handed Jamaicans may have trouble winning the relays in Delhi. With their stars, they would have been a shoo-in, but now, the door is open to such nations as Trinidad in the men’s 4x1 and the Bahamas in the men’s 4x4. In the women’s relays, Great Britain may do well. Their national team has run 3:24 this year and is led by the Olympic champion Christine Ohuruogu. She and Pompey, however, must contend with Botswana’s Amantle Montsho, who has run 49.89 this season. (Botswana, a landlocked protectorate within South Africa, was called Bechuanaland until 1966.)
In the spring, Pompey expressed hope that her Guyana would be able to field a women’s 4x4 team. The possible nominees are Marian Burnett, the 34-year-old LSU graduate who has run 2:01.20 in the 800 this year; Porshe Giddings, a student at BYU (56.93 best); Dianne Munroe (55.57), graduate of Bethune-Cookman, and Jeavon Benjamin, the Hempstead grad (’04) who ran 53.45 for Arizona State.
(Guyana and New York City intersected long ago in the Commonwealth Games. In the second Empire Games, in 1934 in London, Philip Edwards, a native of what was then called British Guyana and a graduate of New York University, won the 880 gold medal for Canada.)
Several athletes with roots in the New York area have been named to the Jamaican team. They include Zara Northover (Jamaica, Queens) in the women’s shot put; Kenia Sinclair, the Seton Hall graduate, in the women’s 800, and Dominque Blake (Truman, Bronx), in the women’s 400 and the relay pool. Blake was a member of Penn State’s national-championship 4x4 team several years ago. Jamaica’s entry in the women’s javelin will be Kateema Riettie, who has thrown over 180 this year as a 37-year-old. Riettie competes for the Central Park Track Club.
Other New York-area competitors who are in the running for the CG, which opens Oct. 3:
• Wales Scotland, Ireland and even the Isle of Man send squads separate from England’s. As does Wales, which means that James Thie, now a 32-year-old veteran, might make the trip. Thie, former resident of Washington Heights, has run a 3:40 1,500 this summer.
• Australia Iona’s Matt Bayley could be in the running. The Aussies also have Fabrice Lapierre, now one of the world’s rare 28-foot long jumpers. At Texas A&M, Lapierre won the New Balance Collegiate Invitational LJ at the Armory five years ago. James Gurr, recent Seton Hall graduate, could make the squad as well. He had an excellent spring, running 47.20/1:46.77. Another Iona Gael, miler Heidi Gregson, could have a shot.
• Great Britain Nick Newman of Manhattan College is in the running for GB in the LJ, as is Tim Bayley of Iona in the 800. One surprise addition to the British team could be the American-born hurdler Tiffany Ofili, who won the NCAA 100H for Michigan. Because her mother was born in England, she has decided to switch allegiance. “I am ecstatic to represent Great Britain athletics henceforth,” she told Simon Turnbull of The Independent.
• St. Vincent & the Grenadines Clayton Latham, Canadian-born, competes frequently in the long jump in upstate New York. He holds the StV national record at 26-plus.
• Guyana In addition to the aforementioned runners, Guyana also has jumper Devon Bond, a graduate of Trenton Central H.S. in New Jersey and a senior at Texas/San Antonio. Bond has excellent credentials in the high jump and triple jump. He TJ’d 52-10.75 for a national record this year.
• Grenada The Brooklyn native Neisha Bernard-Thomas, an LSU graduate, has had an excellent 2010, setting her country’s national record in the 800 with 1:59.60. Her competition will include the Jamaican Sinclair (1:58.16 at Split earlier this month) as well of course the Commonwealth power Kenya.
• New Zealand The Van Dalen twin sisters, Holly and Lucy, in their senior years at Stony Brook, could be under consideration, despite the conflict with our cross country season. Both have been NCAA track finalists. The Kiwis may also include such American college veterans as Nick Willis (Michigan), Adrian Blincoe (Villanova) and Hayden McLaren (Providence). Willis, laid up by injury earlier this year, is expected to run the Fifth Avenue Mile on his way to India. “My coach and I are really encouraged,” Willis told stuff.co.nz. “A lot of my competitors are starting to see the benefits of my delayed season. They are all jealous because they are exhausted and they’re unsure whether they can hold form.” Nearly a decade ago, a teenaged Willis ran his first race in the United States when he won the National Scholastic indoor mile on the Armory track.
• St. Kitts & Nevis Two PSAL veteran sprinters could compete – Virgil Hodge, who ran for TCU, and Tiandra Ponteen, 51.80 this season.
• Canada Veterans of the Armory’s women’s distance wars could be under consideration, including Sheila Reid (Villanova), Avril Ogrodnick (Georgetown), Caitlin Bailey (Boston College) and West Virginia’s Jessica O’Connell, Megan Metcalfe Wright and Marie Louise Asselin.
• Trinidad & Tobago Cleopatra Borel-Brown, who put the shot for the University of Maryland/Baltimore County, will represent Trinidad. The islands’ men’s 4x1 could be formidable, led by Rondell Sorrillo, who ran the 200 for Kentucky at the Armory’s New Balance meet, and Richard Thompson, who won that meet’s 60 dash for LSU in 2008.
• Bahamas The Bahamians’ 400 stable includes Demetrius Pinder (2010 best of 44.93), Chris Brown (45.05), Andretti Bain (45.44), Latoy Williams (45.49) and Michael Mathieu (45.56). Jamaica is no match for that. Pinder, who ran for Coach Mike Smart at Essex County College in Newark, is expected back in the Armory next winter as a member of Texas A&M’s national-championship squad.