Leighton Spencer, son of KCOBA (USA) past president Noel Spencer, competed in his 1st International race at the XXIII Central American and Caribbean Games, in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico on July 16, 2011.
Leighton's time was 15 minutes 49 seconds; 73 seconds below his personal best of 14 minutes 36 seconds. Leighton ran in his first race after recovering from a four month layoff due to a stress fracture in his left thigh.
Spencer earlier competed at the JAAA Senior Athletic Championships at the National Stadium in Kingston, Jamaica on June 24th, reaping the rewards of winning the 5000M Senior National Championship title in a time of 16 minutes 22 seconds. At the time of the national championships, he was unable to train due to the coaching staff instructions not to train or run (only jog and walk for 14 weeks) before June 26th, 2011.
Spencer was able to put in 16 days of training before journeying to Puerto Rico to compete, improving on his Jamaica time by 33 seconds at the CAC meet.