Feb. 4, 2007 – The Virgin Islands Track and Field Federation has announced that Laverne Jones leads the International Association of Athletic Federation (IAAF), the world governing body for track and field, list of 400-meters performances with a time of 52.16, which she ran at the Arkansas Invitational in January. Her high school coach, Devon Peters of the St. Croix Educational Complex, expressed excitement about her performance, stating that it's impressive that she actually moved up to the 400m and that she ran such a fast time in her first meet of the year and indoors.
VITFF officials also stated that Laverne is the first V.I. athlete to be listed as the number one athlete in the world in a running event ever and the first in track and field since Flora Hyacinth was listed as the first female to jump 45 feet in the triple jump when she was at the University of Alabama. The listing of athletes in the events is updated regularly and includes indoor and outdoor times. The world record for the 400m for women is 49.59 Jarmila Kratochvílová of the Czech Republic in Milano, on July 3, 1982, a time many think will not be broken.
Jones also had impressive performances this weekend in the Niswonger Foundation Invitational Memorial at East Tennessee University in Johnson City, Tenn., where she took first places in the Invitational 60-meters and 200-meters. She ran 7.26 in the qualifying round for the best time in the meet and took first place in the finals with a 7.30 over Peta-Gaye Dowdie 7.47 and LaShandra Ratcliff 7.51. She also had the fastest time in the 200m in 23.01 and first place in the finals in 23.21, which is also the fastest time in the world this year (oversized track).
