Anna Willard produced a sensational kick on the home stretch to beat Alena Brooks of Trinidad and Megan Manley of the United States in a thrilling finish in the 800 metres last night.

Willard, of the US, paced herself perfectly and saved something for the final 30 yards as she powered by Brooks and Manley right at the finish line to produce one of the most exciting wins on the night as split seconds separated the first three finishers. Willard clocked 2min 09.22sec, while Brooks crossed the line in 2:09.40 and Manley in 2:09.54.

Willard, 32, is back from retirement and hoping to qualify for the Rio Olympics. The performance against younger opponents was very pleasing to Willard.

“I retired last year but I still have the hunger,” said Willard, still catching her breath after the finish.

“I made the team in 2008 and want to do it again. I love it here, this is my first time here, it’s beautiful. My parents have come a couple of times and my grandparents used to love it here and they said, ‘oh, you have to go to that meet’. I was going to do a race in Florida and I thought, why go to Florida when you can go to Bermuda?”

It turned out to be a good choice for Willard as her race strategy worked to perfection, leaving the crowd screaming in anticipation as she made her move just when Brooks, Manley and Stephanie Herrick of the US were setting up for a sprint finish.

“I was talking to my coach and said ‘should I run it like a time trial since there were good girls in the race?’,” Willard said.

“I felt like I should be running 2:04 or 2:03 and she said, ‘just run it tactically, I just want to see you win the race, so do what you can in the last 150 [metres]’. So I tried to get myself into a good position. I did about a 2:09, probably close to an even split. It was not particularly fast, I was kind of cold, surprisingly.

“We do a lot of all out accelerations [in training] so that helps so much at the end of a race and I knew I had that last gear. I only came back out in January, but was doing a lot of weightlifting in off-season and felt really strong so decided to jump into a couple of track workouts and they went well.”

Tynita Butts, of the United States, a NACAC Under-23 champion with a best leap of 1.93 metres, won the women’s high jump, beating out Emma Kimoto and Saniel Atkinson-Grier of Jamaica, while Bermuda’s Sakari Famous finished fourth after failing to clear the bar at 1.80 metres which was the winning height for Butts.

“I’m a little sad about not making the height [1.84] but I’m happy with the result,” said Butts, who grew up in Georgia and now lives in Virginia. “I came out here to enjoy myself and that’s what I did.”

Kimoto had a personal best jump of 1.85 in Bermuda last year but could not get to that level in her first outdoor meet of the season. “Of course I was hoping to jump higher but I didn’t feel the greatest but I’m happy to open up my season at 1.80,” the Canadian said. “Last year when I came here it was well into June.”

Atkinson-Grier was happy to be back in Bermuda and enjoyed the competition. “I’m very happy to be back and it was great to see everybody,” the Jamaican said.

“Today could have been better, I have a couple of things I need to work on. It was a bit windy, I was getting my height but drifting into the bar. Sadly today was just a 1.75 day. My personal best is 1.89 and I came in today feeling really good but it was a little bit rougher than I thought.

“Some days are not good jumping days but every day is a lesson learnt. You take it to the next competition and make the corrections. I leave tomorrow and it’s off to Drake Relays next week. I’m based in Phoenix, Arizona.”

Atkinson-Grier still has ambitions of qualifying for this summer’s Olympics. “It’s going to come soon and when it does it’s going to be a glorious day,” she said.

Famous also failed at the 1.80 mark, something she was hoping to achieve for the first time on home soil. “I guess I’ll have later on to jump my personal best,” said the Berkeley student, who has a personal best of 1.77.

“It was a good experience, good to see other people compete at a higher level and to see their technique,” said the 16-year-old.

Tiffany James of Jamaica edged out another Jamaican, Dawnalee Loney, to take the 400 title in 53.56 while Loney finished in 53.68. Both finished short of their personal best times while Sade Sealy of Barbados took the other podium spot in a time of 54.67. Another Bajan, Lanece Clarke, was fourth in 54.97.