Global champions Jereem Richards and Keshorn Walcott will be hoping to sparkle at the National Gas Company (NGC) National Junior and Senior Track and Field Championships set to get underway at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Mucurapo from 4 pm on Friday.
Richards, of Abilene Wildcats, is the lone local athlete to have attained automatic qualification for this year's Olympic Games in Paris, France from July 26 to August 11.
The 2024 World Indoor 400m gold medallist had dipped under the men's 200m (20.16) and 400m (45.00) with times of 20.13 and 44.54 respectively.
The 2018 Commonwealth Games 200 metres winner is, however, opting to contest the 400m. The preliminaries of the men's one lap is set for 8:15 tonight.
Richards is the clear favourite to cop his first national one-lap title. He is fastest local in the event with a season's best of 44.82 seconds set in finished fourth at the New York Grand Prix on June 9. The Point Fortin native is one and a half seconds quicker than the next fastest entrant Jaden Marchan of Siparia Athletics (46.35) and should have little trouble advancing to the finals on Saturday.
The battle for the silver and remaining spot on the 4x400m team may be the real contest as youngsters Shakeem McKay (46.39), Joshua Mascall (46.59), and Stefan Camejo (46.99) have also set personal best times this year. Richards' fellow 2022 Commonwealth Games 4x400m gold-medal winning team-mates Che Lara (47.30) and Asa Guevera (47.37) as well as Timothy Frederick (47.06) will also be in contention. Mc Kay, Guvera, Frederick, Lara, and Richards all ran on T&T's Olympic qualifying squad at the World Relays in the Bahamas in May.
Veteran Renny Quow has all intentions to be on the Paris-bound team. The 36-year-old former World Junior gold medalist and World Senior Outdoor bronze medallist reminded his young rivals that he was not to be written off as he took the Abilene Classic one-lap crown ahead of Camejo and Lara.
Richards said he is aiming to lower his 2024 best time. 'I am just going there to have fun as I already have the qualifying standard but I want to better my season's best and set myself up to see which event I will eventually choose (to compete in at the Paris Olympics). I have not decided on yet."
Quow told Guardian Media Sports that he wants to be among the contenders. "I am not aiming for any specific time. I am just going out there to compete and the times would come eventually. My goals are to go out there have fun and stay focused."
The 2012 Olympic gold medallist Walcott will be aiming to continue his rise in form this season where has recorded two wins in Finland. In his most recent triumph was in Kourtane the Toco Secondary graduate improved for the third time with 84.89m. That performance has boosted his confidence as he is hoping to bring that energy and surpass the 85.50m Olympic standard when he lines in the men's javelin final on Saturday at 5:05 pm.
The men's and women's 100m sprints will hold the spotlight once again.
In the men's event, Omari Lewis and defending champion Devin Augustine lead the way. Lewis blazed to a wind-aided time of 9.88 (+5.1m/s) in Texas on May 8 while Augustine clocked a windy 10.02 (+2.2). However, Lewis is doubtful to compete after reportedly picking up an injury in competing in the men's 4x100m team in its quest to qualify for Paris in Guyana on June 22.
Kion Benjamin (10.21), 2022 World Indoor 60m finalist Jerod Elcock, and former World Under 18 and Under 20 finalist Jonathan Farinha should be in contention for medals and will be focussing on the 10-second Olympic mark.
Augustine had a busy season representing his school Minnesota University where he reached the NCAA Divison One final, "I had a long season in the NCAA. The time I’m aiming for is 9.99."
The women 100m will see the veterans up against the youngsters. Multiple national record holder Michelle-Lee Ahye and 36-year-old Reyare Thomas finished 1-2 in 2023. However, Leah Bertrand will want to change the order this year. Bertrand heads the contenders will a wind-assisted time of 11.05, 0.04 seconds faster than the legal best of 11.09 seconds. Ahye is next with 11.16. Teenage Frederick twins Sole and Sanaa have stepped up to the senior ranks this year. Both set PBS earlier this year (Sole-11.38/Sanaa-11.43). Akilah Lewis could upset the form chat. Lewis ran the lead-off leg for the NCAA women's 4x100m gold medal team at Mississippi University.
The women's Olympic 100m standard is 11.07 seconds.
Former World Indoor 60m champion Murielle Ahoure-Demps of the Cote de Voire will provide stiff competition for the local girls. The 37-year-old also won 100m and 200m silver medals at the 2013 World Outdoor Championships.
Bertrand said that she is focused on hitting the Olympic barrier, "I have been doing some speedwork as well as getting myself in the correct head space to compete. For this meet, my goal is to perform at my best and hopefully achieve the Olympic standard time."
The 100m preliminaries are set for Friday with the semifinals and finals on Saturday.
Portious Warren, who finished 11th in the Shot put event at the Tokyo Olympic Games will be looking to ensure she book her ticket to her second Games over the weekend.
The 2019 World University Games silver medallist is just inside of the qualification ranking at 28th of the 32 contenders. Warren achieved a best of 18.16 metres in New York, USA, and will be looking to get the 18.80 standards and retain the women's shot put the crown on Saturday.
The St. Augustine Secondary past student said training has been smooth. "My preparation has been good more of just fine-tuning and tweaking certain parts of my technique It’s my first time competing at home since 2019 so I’m excited to compete in front of the fans and my family."
Janae Gannes is the stand-out junior athlete on the show this week. De Gannes won the girls under 20 long jump title at the Carifta Games in Grenada in April with a record leap of 6.50 metres. The mark is the third personal best for the Concorde athlete for the year all of which were over the 6.20m qualifying standard for the World Under 20 Championships in Lima, Peru from August 27-31.
The 17-year-old will also compete in the Girls under 20 100 metres event. She also has sights of 6.86m Olympic standard. "My goal for this meet is definitely to make the Olympic standard. Also just go out there and enjoy myself and prepare for the World Juniors (Under 20). I am not aiming for any specific distance (in the long jump) but just go out there enjoy and work on the areas that I might be weak in so that we could go back to the drawing board and keep working harder and just keep on pushing for World Juniors which will b August this year.'
The boys under 20 100m field should give a glimpse of the future of this country's sprinting reserves.
The line-up includes the members of this country's victorious Carifta Boys Under 204x100m team: Dylan Woodruffe (10.39), Hakeem Chinapoo (10.41), Mikhail Byer (10.65) and Che Wickham (10.66). Added to the mix is 16-year-old Carifta Boys Under 17 200m champion Kadeem Chinapoo who stunned his older rivals when he zoomed to 10.39 at the MAP Invitational at the Mannie Ramjohn Stadium in Marabella recently. The field should be capable of dipping under the 10.55 World Under 20 standard yet again.
Another World Under 20 qualifier Kyrell Thomas should have his way in the boys under 20 400m following his 47.53 and 47.23 clocking at the Carifta Games where he finished fourth. His Cougars clubmate Nickel Nelson has an entry time of 47.51, under the 47.65 standard.
