Odeisha Nanton resets Yvette Haynes-Dickson’s 30 year old record

Odeisha Nanton was not even born when Yvette Haynes set the St Vincent and the Grenadines Women’s 400m Hurdles record in 1991, but last Sunday, May 4, 2024, Nanton inked her name in Vincentian Track and Field history.

Competing at the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA) Championships, Nanton timed 58.82s at Herschel Neil Track and Bearcat Stadium in Maryville, Missouri. USA.

Her clocking eclipsed Haynes’ 58.89s set on May 18, 1991- two weeks shy of 33 years, when at the National Junior Collegiate Athletics Association Championships in Odessa, USA, she set the new mark.

Prior to her record setting run last Sunday, Nanton had gone sub one minute, when on April 20, 2024, she clocked 59.42s at the Kansa Relays.

Responding to Nanton’s accomplishment of breaking the long- standing record, Haynes, who has since become Dickson through marriage, expressed delight for the 22 year-old Nanton to SEARCHLIGHT.

Speaking from her home in the USA, Haynes-Dickson said: “ I am excited to hear about the potential of the young lady…I am astonished that my 400m Hurdles record existed for so long, over thirty years!”

With the 400m Hurdles record in the grasp of Nanton, Haynes- Dickson still has the 100m Hurdles record to her name. She also held the national Triple Jump record.

Haynes- Dickson thus proffered: “ Records were made to be broken, so any of my other records that are out there, I’m encouraging our current Vincentian athletes to reach and try to break”.

Haynes- Dickson represented St Vincent and the Grenadines at the Junior Carifta Games in 1986 and 1989, competing in the Long Jump, 400m and 800m.

At the 1989 Carifta Games held in Barbados, she pouched bronze in the Under-20 Long Jump.

After jetting off to the USA on an Athletics scholarship, Haynes- Dickson competed in the Long Jump,

Triple Jump , 100m and 400m Hurdles, middle distances events and in relays at the collegiate level.