TOP GEAR: Usain Bolt and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce
SEVERAL OF the island’s top athletes, as expected, have been entered to compete at this week’s Supreme Ventures sponsored Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA) National Senior Championships at the National Stadium.
The event, which serves as a qualifier for a number of senior international meets, such as the IAAF World Championships in Beijing this August, gets under way on Thursday with big names such as Usain Bolt, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Kaliese Spencer and Novlene Williams-Mills, who all have automatic entries to the World Championships as defending champions in their events or Diamond Race winners from last year, listed to compete.
Veronica Campbell-Brown, who won the sprint double in last year’s Diamond Race, is also entered to compete in both events with Fraser-Pryce, who won both sprints at the last World Championships in Moscow in 2013 trumping her wild card.
Bolt has expressed concern about his flat start to the season so far with the world record holder, Olympic and world champion over 100m and 200m, admittedly worried after failing to spark in any of his four individual races so far this season.
The star sprinter hinted that he would compete at the trials after his 20.29 win in the 200m at the recent New York Grand Prix Diamond League event. As expected, Bolt, who said that he needed more races ahead of the World Championships has been entered in the 100m but it is not clear if he will compete in more than one round of the event.
Fraser-Pryce was forced to withdraw from the Rome Diamond League in earlier this month after hurting her hamstring while warming up ahead of a 200m event. The reigning 100m and 200m world champion, like Bolt, already has an automatic spot on the team by virtue of her status as defending world champion but her name appears on the list for both sprint events.
Kaliese Spencer – the Diamond race winner has been in superb form all season, winning all three of her starts in the 400m hurdles. She is, however, entered to run in the flat 400m, as she looks to also secure a spot on Jamaica’s 4x400m relay team, as she has done in the past.
Quarter-miler Williams-Mills could afford to sit out the trials after winning the event in the Diamond League last season, but is also listed to compete in the 400m here, even as question marks around her fitness remain after a slow start to the season compounded by her not finishing her last race in New York a few days ago.
Interestingly, Melaine Walker, who has only ran five races since September 2012 – including three 110m hurdles runs this season, producing a best of 13.27, is entered in the 110m hurdles plus the flat 100m. It will be seen whether she actually faces the starter in the 100m or in fact either.
The enigmatic hurdler, who won gold in the 400m hurdles at the 2008 Olympics and 2009 World Championships was last said to be working out with noted local-based hurdles coach Fitz Coleman after her split with the MVP Track Club in 2013 and a brief spell with the Racers Track Club subsequently.
The 2011 100m world champion, Yohan Blake, who only recently returned from injury with two races in the All Comers series, has been entered in both the 100m and 200m, with his connections expressing confidence that he is currently in good enough shape to qualify for the World Championships and has enough time to then work himself into top form ahead of the August 22-30 event.
Asafa Powell is also set to run in the 100m with the usual suspects: Nesta Carter, Kemar Bailey-Cole, Nickel Ashmeade as well as Julian Forte, Kemarly Brown and Andrew Fisher also registered.