Source: UA Women's Communications
Date Published: 7/13/2005 7:48:17 AM
Last Modified: 7/13/2005 7:48:18 AM
PermaLink: http://haw.gs/n15321

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. -– Senior Aneita Denton of the University of Arkansas Lady Razorback track team took a pair of second-place honors and set the Lady Razorback 800-meter record when she competed at the Jamaican National Championships and the Central American-Caribbean Track and Field Championships.

On June 26, Denton set the UA record in the 800-meter run during the finals of the Jamaican National Championships when she clocked 2:01.91 to finish second overall. Improving by nearly a second from her NCAA Championship performance of 2:02.84, Denton set the UA mark outdoors for the third time this season with the mark. Coming through the first lap at a blistering pace, Denton was able to hold off a strong charge by the field which included two athletes that entered the competition with better season marks than Arkansas’ senior.

“Aneita has had a great year,” Arkansas associate head coach Rolando Greene said. “She is running with the best athletes in the world and holding her own and I can only see her improving as she gets older. The 800 meters is a race that is dominated by athletes in their middle 20s to early 30s and at 22, Aneita is just a baby. She is blessed with amazing talent and, with hard work, has been able to tap into that at such a young age.”

Denton’s second-place finish at the Jamaican Championships qualified her for the Central American-Caribbean Track Championships where she again put together a pair of stellar performances on consecutive days. On Sunday she clocked the second fastest time of the preliminaries at 2:04.39, two thousandths of a second behind Cuba’s Yusneysi Santiusti. Monday night’s final put together some of the world’s fastest 800-meter runners and again Denton was up to the challenge as she once again broke the Arkansas record in the race and finished second with a time of 2:01.66. Grenada’s Neisha Bernard-Thomas was the race winner with a mark of 2:01.07 while Santiusti finished third in 2:02.38.

Also competing at the Jamaican National Championships were senior Kasia Williams in the 100 hurdles and former Lady’Back Veronica Campbell in the 100 and 200-meter dashes. Williams got off to a slow start in her heat of the preliminaries, finishing in fourth with a time of 13.62 seconds, despite running into a 3.6 meters-per-second headwind. The time just missed qualifying for the event finals.

For Campbell, she continues to prove why she was the darling of the 2005 Olympics and a double gold medalist when she claimed the top spot in both of her events. In the 100-meter dash, Campbell edged Olympic 4x100-meter teammate Sherone Simpson at the tape in 10.97 seconds to claim the victory, and then dominated the 200 with a 0.27 second victory and a time of 22.53 seconds.

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