Reign­ing two-time Com­mon­wealth Games 200m and World In­door 400m cham­pi­on, Jereem Richards is yet to de­cide if he will chal­lenge for gold in the 200 me­tres or 400m at this year's World Out­door Track and Field Cham­pi­onships in Bu­dapest, Hun­gary lat­er this month (Aug 19-27).

The Abi­lene Wild­cats sprint­er has achieved the stan­dards for both events - 200m (20.16 sec­onds) and 400m (45.00) with times of 20.08 and 44.54, re­spec­tive­ly. His 20.08 clock­ing was achieved when he fin­ished sec­ond at the LA Grand Prix in Los An­ge­les, USA on May 27 while his 44.54 time was set as he raced to gold at the Cen­tral Amer­i­can and Caribbean (CAC) Games in El Sal­vador on Ju­ly 6. The mark is a new per­son­al best (pb) for him, im­prov­ing on the 44.68-sec­ond run in Flori­da on April 15.

Speak­ing af­ter his run in the men's 200m pre­lim­i­nar­ies at the Na­tion­al Gas Com­pa­ny Na­tion­al As­so­ci­a­tion of Ath­let­ics Ad­min­is­tra­tions of T&T (NGC/NAAATT) Na­tion­al Open Cham­pi­onships at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um in Mu­cu­rapo, Port-of-Spain on Sun­day, Richards told Guardian Me­dia he will make a de­ci­sion soon.

He said, "I de­cid­ed to do the 200m (at the Na­tion­al Cham­pi­onships) to get some speed work in. I will de­cide lat­er on what events I will do for the World Cham­pi­onships.

Richards, who won bronze in the 200m at the 2017 Worlds, did not run in Sun­day's 200m fi­nal which was won by his Abi­lene club­mate Kyle Greaux in 20.74. Greaux, a fi­nal­ist at the 2019 World Cham­pi­onships, missed out on the World Cham­pi­onships qual­i­fy­ing stan­dard. How­ev­er, he dipped be­low the Pan Amer­i­can Games 20.80 mark. He was among sev­er­al ath­letes who notched marks for the Pan Am Games set for San­ti­a­go, Chile from Oc­to­ber 20 to No­vem­ber 5.

Speak­ing af­ter his 200m vic­to­ry, Greaux said he is look­ing for­ward to com­pet­ing at the Pan Games.

"(I am) pleased to have won. I strug­gled a bit with in­juries this sea­son so I guess it is a sil­ver lin­ing. I'm look­ing for­ward to Pan Am Games com­ing up in Oc­to­ber and get­ting in form for that," said Greaux

Keshorn Wal­cott, the 2012 Olympic javelin gold medal­list, heads the list of Pan Am-stan­dard bear­ers when he threw the spear out to 80.41m, well over the 73.00m mark. The To­co na­tive will be out to re­tain the Pan Am ti­tle he won in 2015.

New­ly-crowned 100m cham­pi­on Devin Au­gus­tine (Point Fortin New Jets) was among four men to go faster than the 10.40 Pan Am bar­ri­er. Au­gus­tine won the dash on Sat­ur­day in 10.26. The 2019 Carif­ta boys- Un­der-17 100m gold medal­list crossed the line ahead of Jerod El­cock of Abi­lene Wild­cats (10.27), na­tion­al ju­nior cham­pi­on Con­corde's Rev­ell Web­ster (10.36) and Omair Lewis (10.37), an­oth­er Con­corde sprint­er. El­cock and Au­gus­tine topped the pre­lim­i­nar­ies ear­li­er in 10.35 and 10.39, re­spec­tive­ly.

Au­gus­tine was hap­py with his run in tak­ing his maid­en se­nior na­tion­al ti­tle.

"I thought I ex­e­cut­ed well. I got the start I want­ed. I'm used to run­ning back on per­sons. The whole year, I have been deal­ing with in­juries. It just feels great win­ning in front of my home crowd. I think my mom is in the stands," said Au­gus­tine.

The Min­neso­ta Uni­ver­si­ty stu­dent was a mem­ber of T&T's CAC Games vic­to­ri­ous men's 4x100m. He teamed up with his uni­ver­si­ty col­leagues Kion Ben­jamin and Car­lon Housten as well as Er­ic Har­ri­son Jr to clock 38.30. The time puts the re­lay quar­tet in con­tention for qual­i­fi­ca­tion for the World Cham­pi­onships. Ben­jamin is op­ti­mistic the squad will make the trip to Bu­dapest.

"No con­fir­ma­tion yet. We have been told we have dropped to 16th (place on the qual­i­fi­ca­tion rank­ing) which is the last bub­ble/place­ment time to qual­i­fy. Af­ter this week­end we will see what hap­pens. I be­lieve we should be there," said Au­gus­tine.

Re­yare Thomas (Abi­lene Wild­cats) was a dou­ble qual­i­fi­er. The vet­er­an sprint lass clocked 23.50 to win the women's 200m crown, go­ing faster than the 23.62 Pan Am bar. In the 100m (11.52), she was sec­ond to 2018 Com­mon­wealth Games win­ner Michelle-Lee Ahye 11.31 to 11.43. Third-placed Ak­i­lah Lewis of Con­corde matched the stan­dard, clock­ing 11.52. Ahye matched her win­ning time in the pre­lim­i­nar­ies which Thomas re­turned a clock­ing of 11.44.

Pan Amer­i­can qual­i­fiers

Women

100m (Pan Am Std 11:52)

Fi­nals: 1 Michelle-Lee Ahye 11.31; 2 Re­yare Thomas (Abi­lene Wild­cats) 11.43, 3 Ak­i­lah Lewis (Con­corde) 11.52

Pre­lim:1 Ahye 11.31, Thomas 11.44

200m (23.62)

Fi­nals: 1 Thomas 23.50

Men 100m (10.40)

Fi­nals: 1 Devin Au­gus­tine (Pt Fortin New Jets) 10.26, 2 Jer­rod El­cock (Abi­lene Wild­cats) 10.27, 3 Rev­ell Web­ster (Con­corde) 10.36, 4 Omari Lewis (Con­corde) 10.37

Pre­lims: 1 El­cock 10.35, 2 Au­gus­tine 10.39

200m (20.80) fi­nal: 1 Kyle Greaux (Abi­lene Wild­cats) 20.74)

Javelin (73.00) fi­nal:1 Keshorn Wal­cott 80.41 (79.93, 79.76, 80.41, X, X, -)