Now that he has finally been able to train consistently after two years of disruption caused by the global pandemic, Traves Smikle produced his best throw in three years to achieve the qualifying mark for this summer’s World Athletics Championships at the second JAAA/SDF Jubilee Series meet at the National Stadium in Kingston on Saturday.

Smikle, the 2018 NACAC silver medallist, threw a season-best 66.60m for the victory, his best throw since he threw 67.57m in January 2019. It was the perfect birthday present for Smikle, who revealed afterwards that it was a welcome reprieve from a tough past couple of years.

“The last two years have been crazy with the pandemic and everything. It was very difficult to get into a training flow and now that things are better, not perfect but better, my coach and I got some consistent work in,” said Smikle, who won JMD$90,000 for the win.

“For the season I have been averaging 64/65m. We have been knocking at the door and we finally got it (the qualifying mark) today on my birthday and I am happy about that.”

Noticeably bigger than he has been in previous years, Smikle revealed that his increase in size is also part of his coach Julian Robinson’s plan for him to throw farther this year.

“One of the things my coach wanted me to do is put on a little more weight and we are doing some explosive work, trying to keep consistent with training and today we saw the fruits of our labour,” he said.

Smikle’s throw makes him Jamaica’s best thrower this year ahead of his training partner and friend, Fedrick Dacres, the 2018 Commonwealth Games champion and 2019 World Championships silver medallist and, at least for now, gives him bragging rights in the Reckless Control training group.

Dacres, he said, is sure to use it as motivation to throw beyond the 65.98m he threw at the same venue just over a week ago, the next time he competes.

“Fedrick is a phenomenal athlete and we have been training hard, he has been working hard and we are on track. It is only a matter of time before he hits a big throw,” Smikle said of Dacres.

“Both of us have been averaging over 65m and we just want to work hard and respect each other. I am pretty sure he has seen this mark and it is going fire him up to get something big so the next time we compete, it’s going to be a good one.”

Danielle Williams, the 2015 100m hurdles world champion, was in fine form on Saturday, winning the 100m dash and 100m hurdles double at the Tennessee Challenge at the Tom Black Track at LaPorte Stadium in Knoxville.

The 2019 world championships bronze medallist won the 100m in 11.57 ahead of the USA’s Eboni Coby (11.66) and Cote d’Ivoire’s Karel Ziteh (11.68) before returning to win the hurdles in 12.95, comfortably ahead of the only other competitor in the race, Lindsay Cooper of East Tennessee State who ran (14.27).

Williams ran a season’s best 12.61 at the South Carolina Open on April 23^rd, a time that currently puts her seventh on the world rankings for 2022.

Former STETHS sprinter Dashinelle Dyer, now competing for Clemson, was second in the Men’s 100m in 10.37 behind the USA’s Mario Heslop (10.33). Another Jamaican, Noxroy Wright, ran 10.70 for third.

Three newcomers – fast bowlers Jayden Seales and Shermon Lewis as well as specialist batter Keacy Carty – have been named in the West Indies ODI squad for the upcoming tours of the Netherlands and Pakistan starting later this month.

Meanwhile, Jason Holder is being rested to manage his workload whilst Shimron Hetmyer is also unavailable for selection following the birth of his first child. Evin Lewis was not considered for selection after failing to meet CWI’s fitness criteria.

The West Indies will visit the Netherlands for three ODIs on May 31, June 2 and 4, followed by another three ODIs on June 8, 10 and 12 in Pakistan.

Both Seales and Lewis have played at the Test level while Carty is the first player from St. Maarten to be selected for the West Indies Senior Men’s team as the era of Nicholas Pooran’s captaincy begins.

“We were impressed with Carty and the way he goes about his innings, we saw several glimpses of his ability the way he played against England earlier this year for the CWI President’s XI,” said Lead Selector Dr Desmond Haynes.

“We hope that by giving him this opportunity he will recognize the importance of representing the West Indies. We think he is a young batsman with great promise, and this is the kind of tour he can show he fits in.”

Dr Haynes also expressed confidence in the fast bowlers selected for the white-ball tours.

“We also have a very good group of young fast bowlers who have demonstrated their ability and we want to use these two tours to give them opportunities in the 50-over format,” he said.

“We have a week in The Netherlands and another week in Pakistan and this should provide them with quality opposition to bowl against as we build towards the Cricket World Cup in 2023.  Phillip has been around for some time, and we know what he can offer, Seales has been very good in Test cricket and Lewis is making a return to the West Indies set-up following some good performances.”

The tour of the Netherlands will be the first-ever ODI Series between the two teams and will be played at the VRA Cricket Ground, Amstelveen.

The matches in Pakistan will be played at the Pindi Stadium in Rawalpindi. Both series form part of the ICC ODI Super League, where teams will have the opportunity to earn points to secure one of the top seven places, excluding hosts India, to gain automatic qualification for the 2023 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup.

The West Indies squad: Nicholas Pooran (Captain), Shai Hope (Vice Captain), Nkrumah Bonner, Shamarh Brooks, Keacy Carty, Akeal Hosein, Alzarri Joseph, Brandon King, Shermon Lewis, Kyle Mayers, Anderson Phillip, Rovman Powell, Jayden Seales, Romario Shepherd and Hayden Walsh Jr.

Match schedule:

West Indies tour of Netherlands

May 31: 1st ODI at VRA Cricket Ground, Amstelveen

June 2: 2nd ODI at VRA Cricket Ground, Amstelveen

 June 4: 3rd ODI at VRA Cricket Ground, Amstelveen

 West Indies tour of Pakistan

June 8: 1st ODI at Pindi Stadium, Rawalpindi

June 10: 2nd ODI at Pindi Stadium, Rawalpindi

June 12: 3rd ODI at Pindi Stadium, Rawalpindi

Los Angeles Galaxy made up important early ground in the Western Conference, securing a 1-0 win away to Austin FC on Sunday.

Marco Delgado's strike in the sixth minute was enough to separate the two sides as the Galaxy moved to third on 19 points, a point behind Austin and four points from rivals Los Angeles FC atop the conference.

In what was a sluggish opening, Delgado intercepted the ball high up the pitch and struck home from just outside the penalty area to put the Galaxy in front, with the ball deflecting in off the post and past Andrew Tarbell in the Austin goal.

For all their possession in the second half, Austin's best chance came via a dead ball from Sebastian Driussi, who hit the post in the 89th minute.

In contrast, Galaxy were not able to capitalise from a number of opportunities in transition, but they were still able to emerge with a vital three points.

Earlier on Sunday, the Vancouver Whitecaps defeated Toronto FC 1-0 in the all-Canadian matchup, but remain bottom of the Western Conference.

After Thomas Hasal saved Alejandro Pozuelo's penalty in the 34th minute, substitutes Lucas Cavallini and Tosaint Ricketts combined for the Caps, with Ricketts scoring the winner against his former team in the 90th minute.

In Sunday's other result, Nashville SC defeated Real Salt Lake 2-0. David Romney found the breakthrough in the 63rd minute, before C.J. Sapong sealed it in stoppage time.

Reigning double Olympic champion, Elaine Thompson-Herah, executed a comfortable early-season performance with a dominant showing in the women’s half-lap event at the inaugural JAAA/SDF Jubilee Series on Saturday.

Thompson-Herah left the blocks quickly to effortlessly cover the rest of the field by the top of the curve and shut things down to record a 22.75 winning time.  MVP Track Club's Stephanie McPherson chased her to the line late on and was second in 23.16.  Natasha Morrison was third in 23.52.

In the men’s equivalent, Racer’s Track Club’s Zharnel Hughes finished with the fastest time of the day, after recording 20.56 to win heat 4. 

Olympic 100m bronze medalist Shericka Jackson proved a cut above the rest of the field and powered away midway through the race to claim the women’s 100m in 11 seconds flat.  Her MVP Track Club teammate Anthonique Strachan was second in 11.40 and Sprint Tech’s Remona Burchell third in 11.43.

In the men’s equivalent, Oblique Seville took top spot with a time of 10.00.  The Racer’s Track Club athlete finished comfortably ahead of MVP’s Kishane Thompson, who was second in 10.21, and Kadrian Goldson who was third in 10.24.

Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce registered the fastest women’s 100m season opener in history with a blistering performance at the World Athletics Continental Tour, in Nairobi, Kenya, on Saturday.

In her first appearance on Kenyan soil, Fraser-Pryce looked at home as she took apart the rest of the field with a blistering 10.67 seconds run.  In typical fashion, the decorated sprinter left the blocks in blistering fashion before coasting clear to set the season lead, running into a slight headwind (-0.4ms).

Egypt’s Hemdia Bassant was second with a national record of 11.02, while the USA’s Shannon Ray was third with 11.33.  Olympic 200m silver medallist Christine Mboma did not complete the race as she looked to have pulled a muscle.

“It was very good, the atmosphere was fantastic,” said Fraser-Pryce,” following the event.

“I’m not sure if it was perfect – I’d have to see the replay. But the time tells me that my training has been going great.” she

The run was the third fastest of the athlete’s career and her third sub-10.7 run in the last year.

West Indies T20 star Chris Gayle has revealed that he skipped this season’s India Premier League (IPL) draft because he did feel like he was getting the respect he deserved.

The 42-year-old has been one of the tournament’s most successful and recognisable players since first appearing at the tournament in 2009.  The batsman, however, struggled to find his way last season while representing the Punjab Kings, managing just 193 runs from 10 games.

In addition, the batsman also made the headline after being surprisingly dropped on his birthday and eventually left the tournament early.  In the previous season, Gayle eventually scored an impressive 288 in 7 games but was left out of the team for the first 6 matches.

“For the last couple of years, the way the IPL went about, I felt like I wasn’t treated properly.  So I thought ‘okay, you (Gayle) didn’t get the respect you deserved after you did so much for the sport and IPL,” Gayle told The Mirror UK.

“So, I said ‘okay, that’s it, I’m not going to bother to enter the draft,’ so I left it as it is. There is always going to be life after cricket so I’m just trying to adapt to normality,” he added.

Much like his international career, however, Gayle does not believe his tenure in the IPL is over and claims he could return next season.

“Next year I’m coming back, they need me! I’ve represented three teams in the IPL, Kolkata, RCB, and Punjab. Between RCB and Punjab, I would love to get a title, with one of those two teams. I had a great stint with RCB where I was more successful within the IPL and Punjab, they’ve been good. I love to explore and I love challenges so let’s see what happens,” the 42-year-old said.

The India tour of the West Indies is expected to bowl off on July 22, with matches scheduled to take place in Trinidad, St Kitts, and the United States.

According to reports, the tour is expected to consist of three ODIs and five T20Is and should be the first major test for new West Indies skipper Nicholas Pooran.  Pooran took charge of the team last week, following the retirement of all-rounder Kieron Pollard.

The first of the five-match T20I matches will be played at the Brian Charles Lara Stadium on July 29, and that should be followed by two encounters at Warner Park in St Kitts and Nevis between August 1 and 2.

The last two matches will also be held on back-to-back days, but that venue will be in Florida on August 6 and 7.

Things will get underway with the 50-over matches, which will be conducted at Trinidad’s Queen Park Oval on July 22, 24, and 27.

A change of environment in the offseason seems to be paying off for Natalliah Whyte, Jamaica’s 2019 World Championships gold medallist, who last weekend ran a brand new lifetime best in the 100m, which signalled that good things could be in store for the remainder of the season.

In 2019, Whyte who was then training at MVP International in Florida ran a blistering lead-off leg before handing off to 100m gold medallist Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce as Jamaica sped to a gold medal in the 4x100m relay at the 2019 World Championships in Doha, Qatar.

Notwithstanding the intervening ‘pandemic year’, 2020, when Covid-19 shut the world down; her confidence boosted by the gold-medal performance in Doha, Whyte began 2021 in fine form running a lifetime best of 11.04 at the Pure Athletics Sprint Elite Meet in Miramar, Florida on May 2. However, for reasons that she is yet to comprehend, Whyte failed to make Jamaica's team to the Tokyo Olympic Games after finishing seventh in the 100m semi-finals at the National Championships last June in a disappointing 11.52.

“I don’t know what happened to be honest. I started the season well but didn’t progress,” she said while revealing that the disappointment of not making the team to Tokyo was hard to take.

“I took not making the team really hard but sometimes we rise, sometimes we fall but you have to know how to turn negatives into positives.”

During the season break, Whyte took the decision to leave the MVP International training group for the Rana Reider-led Tumbleweed group in Jacksonville, hoping that a change of environment might bring about the change she needed.

“I eventually started to take the positives from last season and knew that eventually, I had to leave the past in the past because it already happened and there was nothing I could do but work on the future. So this is a new chapter and I am just trying to work even harder, stay healthy and apply what I’m learning,” she said.

So far, it seems to be working well.

On April 30, in her first 100m of the season at the UNF Invitational in Jacksonville, she ran a lifetime best of 10.97 to follow up on the 22.57 she ran over 200m two weeks before at the Tom Jones Memorial Invitational in Gainesville.

“I’m really happy with the results as much as you would imagine,” she told Sportsmax.TV afterwards. “I just want to stay patient, continue to work on the many things I can improve on and see what else God has in store for me.”

She does admit, however, that despite the early success, making the move to Tumbleweed to work with Reider was not an easy decision but she believes it was the correct one.

“I have to say making changes is hard but sometimes changes can be good,” she said.

“I have been working on a lot of things and also learning a lot of new things so hopefully putting the new knowledge together will help me reach the goals I have made for myself for this season.”

 Jamaica international Leon Bailey has vowed to not give up in the face of a difficult season at English Premier League (EPL) club Aston Villa.

The 24-year-old winger is back on the sideline for a third spell this term after leaving the field just before half-time last weekend.  It appears the player picked up what looked to be an ankle injury.  Aston Villa coach Steven Gerrard confirmed that the prognosis is not as bad as first feared but the player will still miss the team’s fixture against Burnley this weekend.

"Leon Bailey won't make the game," the manager told a news conference on Friday. "He left the pitch last week and unfortunately this game will come too soon. I don't think we're dealing with a serious issue... but he won't be at Burnley.”

The injury is the third for Bailey, who has had a stop-start season to life at the club, with a thigh injury previously putting him on the sidelines for weeks, on two separate occasions.  For his part, the forward is determined to recover from his early setbacks and looks determined to return before the end of the season.

“This season has been very tough, but God gives the hardest battles to his strongest soldiers. The most important thing is to overcome all those obstacles in your way & never give up, that’s what makes you a solid/stronger individual,” Bailey posted via social media platform Instagram.

“I just wanna say I really appreciate all the love and support from everyone & I’ll be back VERY soon.”

West Indies bowling great, Sir Andy Roberts was recently recognized by the Windward Islands Cricket Board (WICB) for his continued contribution to cricket development in the West Indies.

WICB President Dr Kishore Shallow presented a plaque to Sir Andy following a fruitful engagement with fast bowlers at the Windward Islands franchise. The West Indian cricket legend travelled to Grenada, home of the Volcanoes franchise, from April 27 – 30, 2022.

The franchise hosted Sir Andy to observe and help the fast bowlers as they prepare for the resumption of the West Indies regional 4-day tournament. The exchanges included discussions on the theory and art of fast bowling. International players Shermon Lewis and Preston McSween participated in the sessions.

“As we continue the efforts to zoom in on specific components of the game, this fast bowling engagement was timely and productive,” said WICB Technical Director, Miles Bascombe.

“The experience and knowledge that Sir Andy has shared with these cricketers are invaluable and will eventually bear fruits.”

WICB Vice President Dwain Gill said Sir Andy’s presence was crucial for the development of the young bowlers.

“Hosting Sir Andy aligns with the New Windwards policy of advancing our cricketers on all fronts,” he said.

“While this was primarily about developing our fast bowlers’ skills, another critical element of this activity was to allow these young players to identify with a West Indian legend and be inspired.”

The Volcanoes team travels on May 15 to Trinidad and Tobago for the final three rounds of the regional four-day tournament.

Jamaica track and field superstar Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce insists she will not focus on the absence of American Sha’Carri Richardson ahead of the World Athletics Continental Tour, at the Kasarani Stadium in Nairobi, Kenya, on Saturday.

Instead, the nine-time World Champion is more intent on keeping her attention on the rest of the field that she is set to face, which will include 200m Olympic silver medallist Christine Mboma of Namibia.

Ahead of the meet, a lot of attention had been placed on the possibility of another 100m match-up between the Fraser-Pryce and Richardson, no doubt a spillover from last season which feature a highly-anticipated showdown at the Eugene Diamond League meet.  Just two days ahead of the Continental Tour, however, and for the third time this season, it was discovered that Richardson had withdrawn from the meet without a public explanation being provided.

Last year, the Eugene match-up between Richardson and Fraser-Pryce had been billed as a great redemption story of sorts for the American.  The athlete had missed out on facing the Jamaica medal-winning trio of Fraser-Pryce, Elaine Thompson-Herah, and Shericka Jackson at the Olympics, after being suspended for a month for marijuana usage. 

Despite the American’s presence, however, the Jamaicans finished in the same order as the Tokyo Games, where Thompson-Herah finished ahead of Fraser-Pryce and Jackson third. Richardson finished in last place.

“As far as I’m concerned there are seven other competitors in the race that I think deserve the same amount of attention and respect as me because when we each line up to compete I don’t think we are fearful of who is beside us or in the next lane.  We are just here to compete and give our best,” Fraser-Pryce told members of the media.

“So, if someone is missing from the competition it doesn’t stop me from focusing on what I’m here to do and getting the job done.”

In addition to Mboma, the 100m field will consist of the USA’s Shannon Ray, Maximilla Imali (Ken), Bassant Hemida (Egy), Rani Rosius (BEL), Patrizia Vanderweken (Lux), and Javianne Oliver (USA).