Velocity Fest 7

The meets that have provided athletes with an outlet for competition after months of uncertainty have produced a number of world-class performances including world-leading times over the past few weeks.

However, while there were no world leads on Saturday, the quality of the competition was still quite good.

Thompson won the 200m in a smart 22.79 seconds, more than a second clear of Bahamas’ Anthonique Strachan, who stopped the clock in 23.87. Srabani Nanda was third in 24.06.

Rusheen McDonald, who holds Jamaica’s national 400m record at 43.93, won the 200m in 21.48, getting the better of Trinidad and Tobago’s Emmanuel Callender (21.88) and Glenmore Biggs (25.37).

Julian Forte has been enjoying a welcome return to form after overcoming injuries that have stunted his progress over the past two years. He enjoyed another win on Saturday, edging 2011 World Champion Yohan Blake, to win the 100m in 10.20s. Blake was also given 10.20s in the race that was run into a stiff headwind of -1.3m/s.

Nigel Ellis was third in 10.45.

The field events also provided good quality with 2019 World Champion Tahjay Gayle leaping to 8.04m to win the long jump. Meanwhile, World Championship silver medallist Shanieka Ricketts produced her second-best jump of the season, 14.37m, to win the Women’s Triple Jump.

World Championship silver medallist Fedrick Dacres won the discus with a best throw of 61.44m. Chad Wright (59.87m) was second.