PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad — Former LSU national champion sprinters Kelly Baptiste and Richard Thompson returned to Trinidad and Tobago this past weekend to compete in the Sagicor National Open Track and Field Championships and earn the right to represent their country at the 2009 IAAF World Championships in Athletics in Berlin later this summer.
And that is exactly what they did in three days of competition at Hasely Crawford Stadium in the city of Port of Spain as the duo swept men’s and women’s 100-meter titles on Saturday night.
Baptiste was the star of the meet as she blew away the competition in winning the women’s 100-meter crown for the second year in a row and the fourth time in the past five years. She also took home titles in consecutive seasons in 2005 and 2006.
Baptiste shattered her own personal best in the event with a wind-legal time of 10.94 seconds in a race run with a tailwind of 1.7 meters per second, eclipsing her previous personal record of 11.06 set in the women’s invitational 100-meter dash at the Texas Relays in 2008.
Her time is also a national record for the country of Trinidad and Tobago and ranks her as the No. 2 sprinter in the world for the 2009 season as she trails only Jamaica’s Kerron Stewart (10.92).
And if that were not enough, Baptiste anchored Trinidad’s 4×100-meter relay team to a win and a national record on Sunday night as she combined with her teammates to cross the finish line in 43.32. With her performance, Baptiste will compete in the IAAF World Championships after also representing her country at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing last summer.
Baptiste certainly did her best to upstage her fellow countryman as Thompson won the men’s title in the 100-meter dash by the slimmest of margins with a wind-legal seasonal-best time of 10.01.
Thompson, a national hero after bringing home a pair of Olympic silver medals in the 100 meters and 4×100-meter relay last summer, took down a field that featured Olympians Aaron Armstrong, Marc Burns and Darrell Brown to win the 100-meter crown. Armstrong finished runner-up with a time of 10.03, while Brown took third and Burns took fourth with matching times of 10.04.
Baptiste and Thompson, who still train together in Baton Rouge under the guidance of LSU head coach Dennis Shaver, will travel to Berlin, Germany, later this summer to compete in the IAAF World Championships in Athletics to be held Aug. 15-23.