Commonwealth champion Sada Williams to headline Barbados National Championships
Williams, who trains at the MVP Track Club in Jamaica under the tutelage of Stephen Francis, is her country’s biggest medal hopeful for the upcoming Paris Olympic Games having already qualified.
The 26-year-old will contest the women’s 400m event at the Usain Bolt Sports Complex in Bridgetown.
The Bajan national record holder has, so far, had a sub-par 2024 season by her lofty standards, failing to dip below 50 seconds in all five of her 400m races.
Her season’s best 50.71 came at the Oslo Diamond League on May 30.
Williams created history at 2022 World Athletics Championships in Oregon by winning 400m bronze in a then-personal best and national record 49.75 seconds.
Later that year, Williams became the first woman to run under 50 seconds at the Commonwealth Games with 49.90 to capture gold. She closed out 2022 with a third-place finish at the Diamond League Final in Zurich in 49.98.
She followed up that fantastic season with another bronze medal at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest.
Williams produced a personal best and national record 49.58 in the semi-finals before returning to run slightly slower in the final, 49.60, to claim consecutive bronze medals.
Also confirmed for the Barbados nationals are Olympians Mario Burke and Tristan Evelyn who are expected to contest the men’s and women’s 100m events respectively.
Burke, 27, has a personal best of 9.98 done back in 2019 and was an Olympian in Tokyo in 2021. In 2016, he took home 100m bronze at the World Junior Championships in Poland in 10.26. He has a season's best of 10.22 done at the Last Chance Sprint Series on June 7 in Sherman Oakes, California.
Hurdlers Tia-Adana Belle and Rasheeme Griffith are also among the big names, along with quarter miler Desean Boyce and former CARIFTA sprinters Julian Forde and Kishawna Niles.
Griffith, a senior at the University on Tennessee, established a new 400m hurdles national record of 48.79 in the heats at the SEC Championships on May 9.
CARIFTA Games gold medalist Layla Haynes and Hannah Connell as well as national javelin record holder Kayla Thorpe are also set to compete.