Mayers: Searchlight’s Sports personality 2010

Sprinter Natasha Mayers is SEARCHLIGHT’s 2010 local top sports performer.{{more}}

Mayers earned a gold medal in the Women’s 100m at this year’s Commonwealth Games held in India in October.

In the process, Mayers copped the first Track and Field medal for St. Vincent and the Grenadines at the Games, which are staged every four years.

Mayers on Thursday, October 7, at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Dehli, India, crossed the finish line in third position in 11.37 seconds.

But, Australian Sally Pearson, who finished first, was disqualified for a false start. Osayemi Oludamola of Nigeria, who was second, was promoted to gold and Mayers to silver.

Another twist was to follow, when both of Oludamola’s drug tests samples were positive and she was stripped, thus landing Mayers the gold medal.

It was a recompense for Mayers, who in April 2005, tested positive in an out of season test. It showed a level of close to nine – more than twice the legal amount of testosterone permitted in the body.

This prompted the IAAF to slap a two year ban on her. Mayers served her time, and was reinstated in 2007.

Her journey in representing the country of her birth began in Trinidad and Tobago in 2000, when she won the 100m at that country’s Olympic Trials.

At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Mayers did not advance past the heats, and at the 2001 World Championships in Edmonton, she advanced to the semi-finals before being eliminated, finishing seventh in the semi-final, with a time of 11.35.

Also in 2001, Mayers became the US National Junior college record holder, with a time of 11.01 seconds, wind assisted, and 11.12 seconds, with a legal wind.

Mayers, who left St. Vincent and the Grenadines in 1990, at the age of 11 years, to reside in the United States, had her best period in the 100m during 2003 and 2004.

In 2003, she ran a personal best of 11.09 seconds, which was the tenth fastest time that year.

In 2004, Mayers was ranked in the world’s top ten women in the 100m.

At the 28th Olympic Games, held in Athens, Greece, in 2004, an injury forced her out of the next round of competition.

Mayers became the third Vincentian to win a medal at the Commonwealth Games.

Frankie Lucas, a resident of England, who chose to represent St. Vincent and the Grenadines in 1974 in New Zealand, landed a Boxing gold, fighting in the Middleweight Division.

Before him, though, George Manners, in 1970, won a bronze medal in Weightlifting also in the Middleweight Division, when the games were called the British Commonwealth Games. (RT)