By KELSIE JOHNSON

NG Sports Reporter

The Tyson Invitational, held at the Randol Tyson track complex in Fayetteville, Arkansas, was used as a small reunion for Bahamian college track and field athletes, who are attending different colleges. It was also the ground some of the elite athletes chose to open their seasons.

'Superman' Leevan Sands proved where he got that nickname from, as he soared to a win in the men's triple jump with a leap of 16.73 metres (m). This was the first meet for Sands, along with Osbourne Moxey who opened his season with a pretty impressive jump of 7.75m for second place behind Ngoni Makusha in the men's long jump.

The jump by Makusha, 7.93m, surpassed the automatic qualifying standard set for the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NC-AA) Indoor Championships.

Also competing in the event was Rudon Bastian, who had a best leap of 7.33m for 11th overall. Four persons left the high jump competition at the 2.07m height.

One of those would be Bahamian Jamal Wilson, who finished 11th overall. Krystal Bodie missed out on the qualifying standard in the 60m hurdles, clocking 8.67 seconds in heat nine of the preliminary rounds. Teammate Sheniqua Ferguson also missed out on advancing to the final round in the 60m dash, after placing third in heat one of the preliminaries.

Her time was recorded at 7.52 seconds, while the winning time in the heat was 7.29 seconds done by Bianca Knight, who dipped below the NCAA provisional standard for the rapidly approaching NCAA Indoor Champion-ships.

In the men's 60m dash, Freeport native Jacobi Mitchell was sixth in his preliminary run in 6.96 seconds. He didn't advance to the finals. Johnathon Davis, of Hinds Community College, secured a first place finish in the men's 400m at the meet, but it still wasn't enough to advance to the final.

He clocked 48.09 seconds for the win over Marcus Boyd, who finished in 48.30 seconds and Martin Stephen in 48.50 seconds.

Auburn Tigers' Cache Armbrister crossed the finish line in 24.57 seconds in the 200m for sixth place in heat one of the preliminaries while Ferguson won heat 10 in 24.26 seconds. Neither was able to advance to the final in the event. In the men's 200m, Davis won in 21.76 seconds but also fell short of advancing to the final.

At the North Carolina Chick-fil-A Invitational, national record holder in the women's 100m and former World Indoor Champion Chandra Sturrup, got her season started with a second place finish in the 60m. She clocked 7.50 seconds in the preliminaries and 7.40 seconds in the final. Winning the event was Damola Osayomi, who also represented Nike, in 7.19 seconds which was a new stadium record.

Also competing at the meet was Romel Lightbourne in the men's high jump. Lightbourne cleared 2.08m for second behind Donte Nall's height of 2.13m.