(SNO) – Saint Lucia’s Levern Spencer returned to Brazil over the weekend, competing at the 32nd Grande Prêmio Brasil Caixa de Atletismo, part of the IAAF World Challenge, on Sunday (8 July) at the National Athletics Development Centre’s (CNDA) Stadium in Bragança Paulista.
121 athletes from 28 countries were involved, but Levern was one of just two gold medallists from the English-speaking Caribbean.
The 34-year-old Olympic finalist, Pan Am and Commonwealth Games champion, has gone as high as 1.96m this year, good for sixth in the world.
On this occasion, going up against a seven-woman field, she needed only to clear 1.92m to vanquish Elizabeth Patterson of the USA.
Patterson gave the Saint Lucian a great run, though, going over on her first attempts at 1.78m, 1.81m, 1.84m, 1.86m, 1.88m, and 1.90m.
Levern, conversely, had passed at 1.78m and 1.84m, needed two tries at 1.86m, passed again at 1.88m, and then needed all three tries to clear 1.90m.
But at the winning height, it was she over at the second time of asking, whilst Patterson – for whom the height of 1.90m represented a season’s best – was unable to match.
Brazil’s Valdileia Martins cleared 1.81 to finish a distant third behind the two.
Bralon Taplin was the other Caribbean Community (CARICOM) winner, Grenada’s Olympic finalist producing a season’s best of 44.67 seconds to win the men’s 400m, leading a Caribbean 1-2 finish, as Deon Lendore of Trinidad and Tobago finished second in 45.54 seconds.
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