23 Jamaicans going for glory in Glasgow
A JAMAICAN team comprising 23 athletes are among over 650 track and field stars going for global glory in Glasgow at the 19th World Indoor Championships which begin early today (Jamaica time).
The three days of intense competition are split into six sessions with 26 events, 13 for each gender, featuring competitors from 133 different nations.
Scotland’s biggest city plays host to the biannual Championships from which Jamaica claimed three medals – one gold and two bronze – at the last staging in Belgrade 2022.
Hopes are high that number could be exceeded at the 5,500 all-seater Emirates Arena, built in 2012 next to the home of Celtic FC in Glasgow’s East End, but competition is sure to be fierce as six world record holders and 20 reigning champions adorn the entry list.
Olympic gold medallists Noah Lyles (60m), Ryan Crouser (shot), Grant Holloway (60m hurdles), Chase Jackson (nee Ealey – women’s shot) and Katie Moss (pole vault) lead the predictably biggest (57) and arguably strongest team from the USA, while other nations, like the hosts Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Netherlands also have multiple medal hopes.
FINAL
Jamaica’s top sprinter Ackeem Blake stands number three, behind Lyles and also competing rival Christian Coleman, in this year’s rankings, as the men’s 60m highlights the opening day, with heats, semi-final and final all taking place in barely ten hours and culminating in the medal decider at 4:45 p.m. (Jamaica time).
The 22-year old former North American Central American and Caribbean (NACAC) champion ran 6.45 in Boston at the beginning of the month, as opposed to Lyles and Coleman who clocked two and one hundredths of a second quicker in their national championships in Albuquerque.
Natoya Goule-Toppin looks to progress to Saturday’s semi-finals when she makes her seasonal debut indoors in the women’s 800m heats.
Midway through the day’s second session reigning national champion Rajindra Campbell will be seeking a podium place in a hugely competitive men’s shot, having upstaged one of the medal favourites Tom Walsh, from New Zealand, at an meeting in Madrid just a week ago.
Campbell and Walsh are tied for third in the year’s best performance table at 22.16m – just 6.00 cm short of the Jamaican’s lifetime best – although both are still well adrift of America’s double Olympic Champion and world record holder Crouser.
Jamaica’s 2019 World outdoor silver medallist and former Commonwealth champion Danniel Thomas-Dodd, who has been competing and winning in the USA this winter, will likely have to improve her personal best of 19.77m and get nearer to the 20m marker if she wants to add another medal in a women’s shot final featuring three other contestants who have already exceeded that distance this season.
The Dutch and European champion, and national record holder, Jessica Schilder, threw a world-leading 21.31m at Appledorn in her homeland less than two weeks ago to install herself as favourite for gold.
The heats and semi-finals of both men’s and women’s 400m take place in each of today’s sessions, with Rusheen McDonald, Stacey-Ann Williams and Charokee Young all going in green and gold.
Women’s high jump and pentathlon medals are also due to be decided today.