Suppose the opening day of the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA) National Senior and Junior Championships on Thursday is anything to go by. In that case, Friday’s second day is expected to reach fever pitch.
Such was the excitement delivered by the star athletes in both the women’s and men’s categories, especially in the sprints.
Leading the way was many-time Olympic Games and World Championships gold medallist Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, who strolled to an impressive 10.70 seconds (1.1mps) in Heat Two of the women’s 100m.
The “Mommy Rocket” pulled Briana Williams into second place in 10.98 seconds on a superfast track conducive to sprinting.
In Heat One reigning Olympic Games repeat sprint double gold medallist Elaine Thompson-Herah eased home in 11.06 seconds (0.5mps) ahead of Natasha Morrison (11.10 seconds).
There was more speed to come and it did in Heat Three behind a 1.5mps wind speed when Kemba Nelson squeezed out Shericka Jackson to win in 10.98 seconds by 1/100th of a second.
Heat Four was won by Shashalee Forbes in 11.23 seconds ahead of Natalliah Whyte in 11.37 seconds in a race run after a Leyone Smith false-started on the first attempt in which most of the runners had completed nearly half the race.
The top two from each of the four heats will be joined in Friday’s semi-finals by Shockoria Wallace, Krystal Sloley, Remona Burchell, Jonielle Smith, Jodean Williams, Kasheika Cameron, Kevona Davis and Ashanti Moore.
The finals of both seniors and juniors will close out day two of the four-day championships.
Not to be outdone the men proved just as electrifying when they took to the track in their equivalent event.
The ever-improving Oblique Seville set the tone when he registered a facile victory in Heat One in 9.98 seconds behind a (1.0mps) wind easing down a long way from the finish line. Jelani Walker was second in 10.07 seconds.
Yohan Blake, the 2011 World Champion responded with a brisk 9.93-second clocking (0.7mps), his best for many years, in Heat Two, to pull Kemar Bailey-Cole into second place in 10.06 seconds.
Conroy Jones won Heat Three in 10 seconds (1.2mps) in a tight three-way photo ahead of Ackeem Blake (10.01) and Oshane Bailey (10.03 seconds), while the fourth heat was won by Kadrian Goldson in 10.16 ahead of Mario Heslop in 10.19 seconds.
Jazeel Murphy, Ramone Barnswell, Nigel Ellis, Tajay Gayle, the defending long jump champion, Shakur Williams, Michael Campbell and Xavier Nairne have also made progress to Friday’s semi-finals.
The junior men’s equivalent resulted in a few injury issues which eliminated prominent athletes such as Jeevan Newby and DeAndre Daley who pulled up in their heats.
Nonetheless, Bouwahjgie Nkrumie and Sandrey Davison made easy progress.
The junior girls never had enough entries and will start with Friday’s semi-finals.
Meanwhile, Kimberly Williamson claimed her seventh National title when she soared to 1.88m to win the high jump ahead of event favourite Lamara Distin, the recent NCAA champ, who could only scale 1.85m. However, Distin has already attained the World Championships qualifying mark of 1.96m with 1.97m and will more than likely be selected for the team. Williamson has a best of 1.93m and is ranked 13th in the world in an event where the top 32 ranking will be accommodated.
On Thursday, Abigail Kwarteng of Ghana, topped the event with 1.90m, but was not eligible to win the event.
In women’s long jump, Ackelia Smith won her first National title when she cut the sand at 6.56m to beat back defending champion Shanice Porter with 6.52m. However, neither woman has the qualifying standard of 6.82m, or is within the world’s top 32 ranked jumpers.
New 800m National record holder Navasky Anderson made easy progress in his pet event, as did Jaheel Hyde in the men’s 400m hurdles.
