High jumper Zindzi Swan has joined Ashley Couper in qualifying for next year's Commonwealth Games.

Swan, studying at Florida College, cleared 1.8 metres in the Georgia Tech Invitational to equal her national record and achieve the 1.79m qualifying standard for next March's Melbourne Games.

Swan, a Carifta medallist last year in Bermuda, is having a great year as a freshman, and has leapt 5.98 metres in the long jump and 12.80 metres in the triple jump for her college this season.

Couper, a 1500 metres runner, has now had her national record set at the Cardinal Invitational of four minutes, 17.6 seconds confirmed by the Bermuda Track and Field Association along with her place in the Commonwealth team.

Gabriel Wilkinson, a senior at Alabama A & M University and a product of Bermuda Pacers Track Club and the BTFA national programme, recently improved his national record to 51.89 metres in the hammer throw at the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) Championships in Mississippi.

He has now qualified for the NCAA Regional Championships, the Senior CAC Championships and is only 1.11 metres short of the standard for the Commonwealth Games.

Veteran cyclist Kent Richardson is in a race to get back in time for the Sinclair Packwood Memorial Race tomorrow after a successful weekend in Memphis.

Richardson finished second in the 45-49 age group at the Subaru Memphis in May triathlon and 44th overall ? a creditable performance in a field of more than 1,500 competitors including pros.

The veteran finished yesterday's race in 2:06.46 after a strong cycle leg but is unsure whether he will now make it back for the May 24 race due to problems with flights.

"I'd like to get back but there was a problem with overbooked flights on the way out and it will be the same on the way back," said Richardson yesterday.

"It will be fun to race again but I don't think I will able to compete with guys like Wayne Scott, Garth Thomson or young Ricky Sousa. I would say Garth is the one to watch ? he is really motoring at the moment."