CARIBBEAN TODAY


Jamaica's Powell breaks

100 meters world record


RIETI, Italy, CMC Jamaican
Asafa Powell majestically
smashed his own world 100-
meter record in a sizzling 9.74
seconds at the Rieti interna-
tional track and field meeting
last month.
 Lined up against a moder-
ate field in only a qualifying
heat, Powell sped out of the
blocks and dominated the event,
slicing 0.03 seconds off the pre-
vious best of 9.77 seconds, which
he has run on three occasions.
 Aided by a legal 1.7
meters-per-second following
wind, Powell finished ahead of
Gambia-born Saidy Ndure
Jaysuma and St. Kitts and
Nevis's former world champion
Kim Collins, who recorded
10.07 seconds and 10.14 sec-
onds, respectively.
 The record was a mild
consolation for Powell's huge
disappointment just weeks
before at the llth IAAF World


Powell finishes his world record run.
Championships in Japan,
when he finished third behind
American Tyson Gay and
Derrick Atkins of The
Bahamas. But the big Jamaican
appeared re-energized by his
feat and embraced the moment.
 "Today I proved to the
world that Asafa is back,"
Powell said after the race on
Sept 9.
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S P 0 RT


Barbadian crowned English pro cricket's MVP


LONDON, Sep 24, CMC -
Ottis Gibson has won a major
award in Britain.
 The former Barbados and
West Indies all-rounder has
been named the winner of
the inaugural Professional
Cricketers' Association Most
Valuable Player
award.
 Gibson helped
Durham to secure
two major domes-
tic trophies with a H
number of match-
winning perform-
ances. The 38-year-
old gathered 723
runs and collected
116 wickets in all
competitions, but
he scored 578 runs
and snared 80
wickets including Gibson
10 for 47 against
Hampshire in the County
Championship proper. He also
won the man-of-the-match
award for his three for 24 -


 Bajan racehorse connection hoping for Kentucky D
ETOBICOKE, Canada One rider," Casse said of
of Canada's leading trainers Husbands recently.
Mark Casse is hoping top Casse, whose stable is
Barbadian rider Patrick based at the Woodbine race-
Husbands lands success in a
major race in North America i


soon.
 Casse, who is the number
one trainer for Barbados-
based Canadian businessman
Eugene Melnyk, has notched
up several major wins in
Canada with Husbands and
says he was eyeing the presti-
gious Kentucky Derby.
 "I see us maybe possibly
winning the Kentucky Derby
and those things and nothing
would make me happier than
to have Mr. Husbands sitting
on top of him with the roses,"
Casse told CMC Sports.
 Recently, Husbands guid-
ed Marchfield, a Melnyk-
owned, Casse-trained three-
year-old colt, to victory in the
Breeders' Stakes.
 Melnyk, a prominent


Husbands after won of his many suc-
cesses in Canada.
racehorse owner in North
America, has developed a
trend of naming his horses
after communities in
Barbados.

'GREAT RIDER'
 Husbands rode his first
Kentucky Derby last year,
getting the leg up aboard
Casse's Seaside Retreat, but
finished down the field.
 "I don't think there's any-
body better. He's a great


Barbadian jockeys fight to the finish. Jono Jon
the rail with Essential Edge to beat Sealy Hill
by a neck in the CAN$351,600 Canadian Stak
Woodbine in Toronto.

track, said the current season
had gone well and was antici-
pating more success for
Melnyk and his connections.
 "Right now we've been


also against Hampshire in
the limited-overs trophy final.
 Gibson leapt well clear
 of his nearest rivals the
 Pakistani leg-spinners Mushtaq
 Ahmed and Danish Kaneria -
 as he also claimed the PCA
 Bowling MVP award. Gibson
 ended the season
 with 735.97 points,
 135.67 clear of
 Mushtaq and 178.49
 ahead of Kaneria.

 REWARDING
 "Certainly for
 me, the last couple of
 years spent coaching
 has made a difference
 to my approach to
 the way I play now,"
 Gibson told the BBC.
 "Sometimes
 you may search a life-
 time for what you
 might consider is perfection. If
 I look back, this year has cer-
 tainly been that way. It has
 probably been a perfect season


lerby success
fortunate. Right now we are
leading again this year. Last
year we won the Sovereign
Award," Casse said.
 "I hope to
 -'! see Eugene
 - win his first
 Sovereign
 Award as lead-
 ing owner this
 year and possi-
 bly leading
 breeder.
 "That's big,
 it's big for us to
 be that (leading
 breeder) in
 Canada but I
nes gets up on think Eugene
with Husbands and myself and
kes last month at Laura Melnyk -
 she's a big part
 of it also I
 hope to see us not just in
 Canada but in all of North
 America."
 0


...Husbands claims Triple Crown after Sealy Hill wins appeal


ETOBICOKE, Canada, CMC
- Sealy Hill, the champion
three-year old filly, was rein-
stated the winner of the Bison
City Stakes, after the Ontario
Racing Commission upheld
the connections' appeal at a
hearing late last month.
 Sealy Hill, with top
Barbadian jockey Patrick
Husbands aboard, was dis-
qualified after winning the
CAN$250 000 event on July 1
this year at the Woodbine
racetrack.
 Stewards had ruled that
Sealy Hill, owned by the
Barbados-based Canadian


businessman Eugene Melnyk,
had impeded Quiet Jungle at
the eighth pole. The race was
awarded to Street Sounds
with Sealy Hill relegated to
third.
 Husbands and Sealy Hill's
trainer, Mark Casse, appealed
the decision and arbitrators,
after hearing evidence from
Husbands on Sept. 26, over-
turned the stewards' decision.

TOP JOCK
 The decision gave
Husbands a remarkable 18th
stakes win for the season, the
most by any jockey this sea-


son at Woodbine and handed
him the Triple Crown.
 "I am happy and proud
about it. It was a hard blow to
Eugene and it was a hard
blow to myself and Mark
Casse who is also the trainer,"
Husbands told CMC Sports.
 "This is the filly that was
the first to win the Triple
Crown. Last year I went close,
I won the first two legs of the
Triple Crown (but) I rode the
last leg and got beaten. So
now I got the chance to win
all three races and they took
away one from me which was
uncalled for.


 "Everybody knows it was
tough being on the (witness)
stand and getting questioned
over and over but it turned
out in my favor."
 Sealy Hill, named after a
small community in Barbados,
claimed the Triple Crown
after winning the $500 000
Woodbine Oaks on June 10
and claiming the final race,
the Wonder Where Stakes, on
July 28. The Ontario Racing
Commission said it would
release the reasons behind
their decision some time in
the future.
0


tor me.
 "I've bowled well without
any pressure, and when I go on
the field I always try to make a
massive contribution to the
team. It's a team effort and
I've led the bowling attack this
year, which is what was
required."
 The Most Valuable Player
award was launched by the
PCA this year to provide a
more reliable and accurate
means of assessing a player's
performance, rewarding each
run, wicket and catch.



 'Soca Warriors' remain

 on top in region's soccer
 PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, Sep 19,
 CMC -Trinidad and Tobago's "Soca
 Warriors" remained on top of the
 Caribbean Football Union's (CFU)
 soccer rankings, collated from the
 September rankings released by
 soccer's world governing body FIFA
 last month.
 Below is the Caribbean listing,
 with the world ranking in brackets:
 1. Trinidad and Tobago (64)
 2. Cuba (71)
 3. Haiti (83)
 4. Jamaica (96)
 5. St Vincent & the Grenadines (97)
 6. Guyana (103)
 7. Barbados (109)
 8. Antigua & Barbuda (131)
 9. Bermuda (135)
 10. Dominican Republic (139)
 11. Suriname (143)
 12. St Kitts & Nevis (146)
 13. Grenada (162)
 14. St Lucia (163)
 15. Bahamas (168)
 16. British Virgin Islands (179)
 17. Turks & Caicos Islands (181)
 18. Netherlands Antilles (182)
 19. Dominica (186)
 20. Cayman Islands (188)
 21. Puerto Rico (195)
 22. Anguilla (197)
 23. U.S. Virgin Islands (200)
 23. Montserrat (200)
 23. Aruba (200)


 SPORT BRIEFS
 WICB, Stanford 20/20 strike
 deal
 The West Indies Cricket Board and the
 Stanford 20/20 Board of Directors
 have agreed to a five-year franchise
 deal that will allow the Stanford 20/20
 regional tournament to become part
 of the WICB's annual cricket calendar
 in the Caribbean, along with the one-
 day and four-day tournaments.
 Millionaire backs Grenada's
 sailing fest
 The millionaire who led Britain's
 America's Cup challenge in 1983 is
 backing Grenada's efforts to raise the
 profile of its premier sailing festival.
 Investor Peter Desavory has
 agreed to a three-year contract with
 festival organizers to be title sponsor
 of the Grenada Sailing Festival
 scheduled for Jan. 5-29, 2008.
 Compiled from CMC and other
 sources.
 .0


October 2007