BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE Federation will be represented at the March 12-14 IAAF World Indoor Championships this year by top female sprinters Tiandra Ponteen and Virgil Hodge.
Held in Doha, Qatar, Ponteen will be representing the Federation at the 14th Indoor Championships in the 400m, while Hodge will be taking to the track in the 60m.
Ponteen qualified for the meet in her second race of the 2010 season, which was the New York University Fastrack Invitational held on February 26 at the New Balance Track & Field Center.
At that event, Ponteen logged a time of 52.45s in the 400m, putting her well below the 53.25s mark needed to qualify for the World Indoor Championship and earning a silver medal. She was only bested Aliann Pompey of Guyana, who ran a personal best indoor time of 51.83s.
Ponteen’s training has been reportedly going very well ahead of the championships and St. Kitts-Nevis Amateur Athletics Association Public Relations Officer Evris Huggins told SKNVibes that she is predicting an even faster performance in Doha.
Meanwhile, Hodge has been qualified for the event since February of 2009 when she met the qualifying mark of 7.37s in the 60m at Ghent, Belgium.
Hodge also competed at the NYU Fastrack Invitational as her first race of the 2010 season, which she said was “good preparation for Doha”.
She finished in third place overall behind top Jamaican sprint queens Veronica Campbell-Brown and Sheri Ann Brookes with a time of 7.52s.
“At the end of the day I came out in 3rd place with a time of 7.52s which I was very pleased with because, unlike Veronica who probably [will] have 5 races under her belt before Doha, that was my first race,” Hodge blogged on her website.
Hodge also comfortably won the 200m at the NYU event with a time of 24.30.
The Federation’s women will have a high standard to reach to improve on the nation’s performance at the 2008 IAAF World Indoor Championships held in Valencia, Spain where national icon Kim Collins took the silver medal in the Men’s 60m with a time of 6.54.
