YOLANDE STRAUGHN, one of the finest female sprinters this country has produced, is back home to attend the funeral of her mother, Elrita Straughn.

Yolande, the fastest woman in the country throughout the 1980s, returned from Dallas, Texas, a few days ago, to attend today's funeral at Holy Trinity Church, which is adjacent to King George V Memorial Park in St Philip, today at 3:30.

Elrita, 75, a former vegetable vendor, is also the grandmother of two-time Olympian Seibert Straughn, the top quarter-miler in the country in the early1990s.

Yolande, 39, the last Barbadian woman to win a sprint gold in the Under-20 Division at the Carifta Games – she won the 200 metres at the 1985 Games in Barbados – will return to the United States on Wednesday. (MK)