Valley’s Clarke Finishes Strongly to Win Heptathlon

Valley College’s Melanie Clarke turned in a torrid second-day performance to post a come-from-behind victory in the heptathlon in The Athletics Congress junior championships in Fresno.

Clarke totaled 5,080 points to outdistance Edwina Ammonds (4,958) of Kings River College, Kalleen Madden (4,931) of Texas A & M, and pre-meet favorite Tish Milligan (4,821) of the Knoxville Track Club.

Third after the first four events Thursday with 3,026 points, Clarke maintained that position with a mark of 17 feet 9 1/4 inches in the long jump to start Friday’s final three events, then took the lead for good with a personal-best 121-1 in the javelin.

She capped the day with a time of 2 minutes 24.11 seconds in the 800. Clarke’s marks in the javelin and the 800 were the best in the 14-woman field.

Although Clarke won, she fell short of the qualifying standard (5,300 points) for the World Junior Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, Aug. 8-12.