Trecia Smith, placed second in the triple jump. - FILE
JAMAICANS MICHAEL BLACKWOOD and James Beckford scored victories at the low-keyed Madrid IAAF Grand Prix meeting yesterday.
Blackwood clocked 44.84 seconds to win the men's 400 metres ahead of former national representative Brandon Simpson who now runs in the colours of oil-rich state Bahrain. Simpson's time was 45.01.
Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Jermaine Gonzales finished out of the top eight after his 45.97.
Beckford, the 2003 World Championships silver medalist, took the men's long jump with a best leap of 8.15m. Issam Nima of Algeria was second with 8.09m and Cuba's Ivan Pedroso third with 8.07m.
WIGNALL'S DISMAL FORM
Last year's World triple jump champion, Trecia Smith, had to settle for second in her pet event behind Russia's Tatyana Lebedeva.
Smith improved her season best to 14.84m but Lebedeva, the only woman to go over 15.0m this year, had a winning leap of 15.02m. Men's high hurdler Maurice Wignall continued his dismal form on the grand prix circuit when he finished out of the top six in the event. Wignall, the 2006 Commonwealth Games champion, clocked 13.70 for ninth overall in the event won by Cuba's Dayron Robles in a very good 13.08. American Aries Merritt was second in 13.19.
Gregory Little was fourth in the men's 400m hurdles in 49.82. The race was won in 49.38 by Panama's Bayano Kamani.
In the women's event Shevon Stoddart was seventh in 56.93 behind Sandra Glover of the United States who won in 54.20.
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