Barbadian quarter-mile queen Sada Williams outclassed the competition in 51.84 seconds to win her 400 metres season opener at Velocity Fest 13 in Kingston, Jamaica, on Saturday night.
Running from lane five in the women’s A final, Williams, a bronze medallist in the 400 metres at last year’s World Championships in Eugene, Oregon, quickly sprinted out of the blocks and steamed down the back stretch where she began her dominance of the race by overtaking Jamaican Tovea Jenkins in lane six.
Williams, who is attached to the MVP Track Club, maintained her strong form for the remainder of the race and fought off a late surge from clubmate Janieve Russell of Jamaica in Lane 3.
The Barbadian responded to the surge by remaining resolute to the end, eventually pulling further away to finish comfortably ahead of her nearest challenger Russell who ran a time of 52.41 seconds.
Williams, the Commonwealth Games champion, has a personal best of 49.75 seconds.
Jenkins was third in 52.66 seconds. Velocity Fest 13 is a World Athletics Continental Tour Challenger event. (RW)