All but five of Jamaica’s athletes are in camp 48 hours ahead of the start of the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon. One of those athletes will not be joining the team, Sportsmax.TV has learnt.

Meanwhile, Tokyo Olympic 110m hurdles champion Hansle Parchment and Tokyo Olympics 400m finalist Stephenie-Ann McPherson have been named team captains as the athletes look forward to getting into action on Friday.

Of the 64-member team selected by the Jamaica Administrative Athletics Association to represent the country at the Championships set to run from July 15-24, quarter-miler Gregory Prince, 100m sprinter Jelani Walker, discus thrower Chad Wright as well as long jumper Chanice Porter and 800m runner Chris-Ann Gordon-Powell have not yet arrived in the athletes’ village.

Media liaison Dennis Gordon revealed that Prince received his US visa on Tuesday and is expected to arrive in Oregon by either late Wednesday night or early Thursday morning.

Walker’s situation is more concerning as the athlete has tested positive for Covid-19 and has been advised to remain away from the camp until he is advised by the medical team.

Chad Wright, Gordon explained, will not be joining the team because of “visa issues”.

As it relates to Porter and Gordon-Powell, the team’s technical leader, Maurice Wilson, at the request of their agent Claude Bryan, has granted permission both to join the camp on July 15.

Otherwise, Gordon said, all the other athletes are in camp and are said to be in high spirits ahead of the start of the competition, welcome news against the background of some challenges the delegation faced over the past few days.

Flight cancellations delayed the arrival of some athletes to the pre-camp late last week before the athletes moved into the village on July 10.

There were also issues with delays in accrediting some athletes because of matters relating to their Covid-19 status, Gordon confirmed.

He explained that some of the athletes faced issues with uploading forms issued electronically by World Athletics, that required information on athletes’ vaccination status. This was confirmed by some coaches who spoke with Sportsmax.TV earlier this week.

However, that matter has now been resolved and all athletes have now been accredited, Gordon said.

Another relatively minor issue that athletes faced was with the rooms to which they were assigned. Gordon explained that a list was created assigning athletes to specific rooms.

However, some of the athletes had preferences about whom they wanted to room with and as such when some athletes reported to the rooms to which they were assigned, they found there was another athlete already occupying what should have been their space.

That situation has also now been resolved, Gordon assured.

Several athletes who spoke with Sportsmax.TV confirmed that they are now settled.

 “For the most part, people seem to be okay. I haven’t heard any complaints really,” one athlete, who wanted to remain unidentified said.

“The rooms are dorms, and that was expected seeing that we are on a campus.”

Jamaica’s men 400m runners will be among the first to get into action on Friday morning in the 4x400m heats after which the preliminary round of the men’s 100m will get underway.

The heats of the men’s 100m will get underway in the afternoon session on Friday with the mixed relays finals scheduled to close out the day.

Chantel Malone, the best long jumper from the British Virgin Islands, will miss the 2022 World Championships in Eugene, Oregon because of a long-running knee injury.

Injury has forced defending 400m champion out of the 2022 World Championships set to begin in Eugene, Oregon this coming weekend.

American-born Andrew Hudson will not be able to represent Jamaica at the upcoming World Championships in Eugene, Oregon, despite winning the 200m event at the Jamaica National Championships.

Hudson stunned onlookers at the country’s national trials after finishing ahead of pre-race favourite and 2011 World Champion Yohan Blake, with Nigel Ellis finishing in third place.

Hudson was one of three athletes who applied to the Jamaica Athletic Administrative Association to switch allegiance and were approved to compete at the championships.  The JAAA was optimistic regarding the athlete being given clearance to represent the country before the World Championships in Oregon. 

According to a release, however, the athletes will not receive clearance in time for the games.  Hudson will as a result not be eligible to compete for Jamaica until July 28th and has been replaced by fourth-place finisher Akeem Bloomfield in the 200m.  The JAAA also released the rest of the squad.

As he set out to qualify for this summer’s World Athletics Championships in the United States, Trinidad and Tobago’s Jereem Richards had set a goal to run below 20 seconds in the 200m at the National Association of Athletics Administrations (NGC/NAAA) Open Championships.

On Sunday, he delivered.

Richards, the 2022 World Indoor 400m champion, sped to a fast 19.83 to win the half-lap sprint on the final day of the championships hence securing his spot to Oregon in July. It was a new lifetime best and the fastest time ever run over the distance on Trinidadian soil.

The time was run in virtually still but rainy conditions as the trailing wind was measured at 0.3m/s. None of that mattered to Richards, who has been in good form this season. “I was not concerned about the weather. I was just ready to run fast,” said the 28-year-old Richards who is also intent on defending his Commonwealth Games title after the World Championships conclude on July 24.

Kyle Greaux ran 20.56s for second place while 400m champion Dwight St Hillaire ran 20.68 for third.

Andrenette Knight went into Jamaica’s National Senior Athletics Championships on Thursday as the fastest Jamaican woman in the world over the 400m hurdles this year.

Jereem Richards, the 2022 World Indoor 400m champion, will contest only the half-lap sprint at the Trinidad and Tobago National Championships set for June 25-26 at the Hasley Crawford Stadium in Trinidad and Tobago.

Though pleased with her ‘workout' at the National Stadium in Kingston last Saturday, Derron Herah, coach and husband of Olympic champion, Elaine Thompson-Herah believes the next six weeks of preparation will be crucial.

 This is especially true if she is to realize her goal of winning her first World Championship title this summer.

The triple-gold medallist at last year’s Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, ran a smart 10.94s to win the 100m dash running into a headwind of -1.8m/s and then less than an hour later clocked a decent 22.55 to complete the double.

“Her performance is good,” her proud husband told Sportsmax.TV after the 100m final where had there been no headwind, Thompson-Herah’s time would have been 10.81.

“Today (Saturday) was mainly a training run; didn’t know she was going to run this fast. She was not necessarily pressing the gas, just basically the first 30 and trying to maintain and maintaining brought her 10.94, so we are right there. We just need to lighten up because we’re still heavy. So when the time is right we will lighten up and then go when we need to go.”

Lightening up, as Herah puts it, involves getting Thompson-Herah to approach her peak at the National Championships from June 23-26 but be at her best at the 2022 World Championships that begin in Eugene, Oregon on July 15, just over two weeks later.

He explained that with the two championships so close to each other, everything comes down to timing.

“The timing is very important. After the National Championships, we have two weeks before World Championships, so we almost have to peak in the championships and maintain that into the World Championships. We have to be very careful and very and very selective with races and how we approach races,” he said of Thompson-Herah’s preparation.

“What we are trying to do is getting her to peak for Oregon, not necessarily the trials. We will have to be in some kind of shape to indicate what we are going to do in Oregon so we have to be on that cycle now, six-seven weeks out, so by the time trials come around then we would have to be in similar shape as to what we would be in Oregon.”

The delicate nature of this phase is partly why they decided against flying to Birmingham, England last week for the Diamond League meeting after Thompson-Herah suffered some discomfort during training.

Herah explained.

“Even our decision to not go to Birmingham, we had everything in mind because we knew what the weather was going to be like and she was feeling some type of soreness. It’s not like we would go and then not run,” he said.

“We decided on the day not to go and as the week went along she started to feel a little better so I decided we would come out here today (Saturday) because we would have had a training session today anyway, so we got in two competitive runs but what we saw today was good enough.”

Thompson-Herah is down to compete at the Prefontaine Classic Diamond League meeting in Eugene, Oregon on Saturday, May 28. She lines up against some of the fastest women in the world including Dina Asher-Smith, World 60m champion, Mujinga Kambundji, Olympic gold medallist Briana Williams, Shericka Jackson, Marie Jose Ta Lou and Twanisha Terry.

On August 1, 2021, Britany Anderson lined up in lane seven of the final of the Tokyo Olympics 100m hurdles. Having run 12.40, a personal best and the second-fastest time going into the final, only Jasmine Camacho-Quinn, who set an Olympic record of 12.26 in her semi-final, was faster.

Expectations of a medal were high for the 20-year-old Jamaican but it was not to be. She hit the sixth hurdle, managed to clear the seventh but then stumbled, lost her momentum and with it any chance of a place on the podium and making history as the first woman from the Caribbean to win an Olympic medal in the event.

That honour went to her compatriot, Megan Tapper, who finished third behind world record holder Kendra Harrison of the United States, who won silver and Camacho-Quinn, who created history of her own becoming the first Puerto Rican woman to win an Olympic gold medal.

During a recent sit-down with Sportsmax.TV where she talks about her improvement this season, how her training group and her faith in God, have helped her successfully transition to senior competition, Anderson revealed that running her personal best in the semi-final impacted her in a way that she did not expect.

“My emotions were all over the place. I was crying. I was excited, I was overwhelmed,” she said about what caused her to lose her focus after running her lifetime best in the semi-final.

“In the final, I don’t know what…it was like, something went wrong, not just with the hurdles, but because I was so overwhelmed and it was my first senior games, everything was just all over the place.”

Nevertheless, she said she was not disappointed at the eventual outcome saying that she felt like she had won just to make the finals at the Olympic Games.

It is with that mindset that Anderson has approached the start of the new season wherein the span of three weeks she ran three-lifetime bests in the indoors 60m hurdles. Starting at the Millrose Games on January 29, Anderson, who turned 21 in January, ran a lifetime best of 7.91 to defeat a field that included Kendra Harrison.

Just about a week later, she lowered that time to 7.88 while finishing second to Danielle Williams, who ran a then-personal best 7.83 at the New Balance Grand Prix in New York.

Six days later, at the American Track League Meeting in Louisville, Kentucky, Anderson would go even faster clocking 7.82, the fourth-fastest time in the world. Only Williams (7.75), Harrison (7.81) and Alia Armstrong of the USA (7.81) have been faster.

According to the former Vere and Camperdown athlete, her success this season comes down to the change in mindset bolstered by improving confidence.

“I feel like it was just the mindset that changed from last season to this season. Last season was just something to show me what I could do this season and I bring all of that to this season, worked on what I had to work on in practice and just bring it out there on the track,” she said.

It wasn’t that long ago that Anderson set the World U20 record in the 100m hurdles, 12.71, in July 2019 in Finland. She is the World U18 champion and the silver medallist at the World U20 Championships in Finland in 2018.

Since that time, her transition to the senior ranks has been relatively painless as evidenced by her qualifying for her first Olympic final eight months after she turned 20.

She credits her training partners at Tumbleweed, the training group she joined in 2019, for helping her make the transition to the senior ranks.

“Most parts of it was the people I had around me, like my training partners, they helped me throughout everything, off the track and on the track so the transition from a junior to a senior wasn’t really hard,” she said, adding that having fellow Jamaicans Christopher Taylor, Christania Williams and fellow hurdler Omar McLeod, played their part in helping her make a smooth transition.

Transitioning to the senior ranks comes with its own challenges because before she can conquer the world, she has to first overcome perhaps the deepest pool of talent currently at Jamaica's disposal with the likes of Danielle Williams, Tapper, Ackera Nugent, perhaps Janeek Brown and Yanique Thompson among others. Asked about where she sees herself among Jamaica's world-class hurdlers, Anderson confidently indicated that she knows what she is capable of.

"I know what I can do. I know what I am going to do. At the trials, I know what I am going there for, so I will just let all of that play out in God's way," she said.

As for this year, Anderson is focused on the World Championships in Oregon in July but as it relates to World Indoors next month and the Commonwealth Games, no decision has yet been made. Her agent Mario Bassani said those decisions will be made at a later date and will be as a result of discussions with her coach Rana Reider, whom she describes as a really great coach.

“The lesson I take from him is I can do whatever I can put my mind to,” she said.

So far, that advice seems to be working well for Britany Anderson.

 As Bassani tells it, whichever championships she decides to compete at this year, she will be ready.

Elaine Thompson-Herah said she would have loved to have gone under seven seconds in her 60m win in Birmingham on Saturday but she was to open her indoor season on a winning note.

Olympic and world 110m hurdles champion Omar McLeod has told his clubmates at Tumbleweed Track Club in Jacksonville, Florida that he is leaving, multiple sources have confirmed for Sportsmax.TV. However, he has given no reason why or indication of where he is headed.

Free of injury and embracing a new mindset are among the key factors why Danielle Williams is enjoying her sport once more.

British Virgin Islands long jumper, Chantel Malone, says she wants to compete at both the Commonwealth Games and World Championships in 2022.

The 2019 Pan Am Games Champion, speaking Sportsmax.TV’s On Point, says she’s up to the challenge of competing in both events, even with the limited time between them.

The 2022 Eugene World Championships are scheduled to run from July 15th -July 24th and the Commonwealth Games are scheduled to run from July 28th -August 8th in Birmingham.

“It’s going to be tricky. It will definitely be a very intense next three cycles, but I think it’s do-able for sure,” said Malone.

She also referred to the fact that the US trials are also usually taking place at that time.

“The US athletes normally have their trials and then the World Championships or whatever games they’re preparing for within that period,” she said.

 With the condensed nature of track and field for the next few years, Malone went on to say her health is her number one priority this season.

“It’s just about making sure that I can stay healthy. That’s my focus this year. To stay healthy and continue to grow and become a master and student of my craft,” said Malone.

 The full interview can be seen on the Sportsmax TV YouTube channel.

Eight-time Olympic medallist and founder of the Pocket Rocket Foundation, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, has partnered with Visa to create specially branded shirts that will be available to donors who use their Visa cards to contribute US$100 to her foundation.

The shirts will feature Fraser-Pryce’s signature as well as the Olympic rings on the sleeve. Donors will also receive a mask signed by Fraser-Pryce and a Pocket Rocket pin.

Fraser-Pryce, who lowered her 100m personal best to 10.60 this season, says all proceeds will go towards the Pocket Rocket Foundation.

The nine-time World Championships gold medallist reminded potential Visa donors that their contributions are for a good cause.

“I know you guys are eager to grab the shirts but please be reminded that this will go towards the Pocket Rocket Foundation and your support means the world to us and all our student-athletes, the ones who are still here and the ones who are coming for the future,” she said.

This branded shirts venture is the latest in a number of initiatives Fraser-Pryce has undertaken to raise funds for the foundation. Last month, she was the guest of honour at an auction held at the Miramar Cultural Centre in Florida. 

Former Kingston College standout, Akeem Bloomfield, says he is 100 percent healthy going into the new track and field season.

The 2019 World Championships 400 metres finalist, speaking on Sportsmax TV’s On Point, says that after sustaining an injury in April, he is ready to go.

“It was a really bad injury to my right hamstring. I did an intensive rehab process after I got injured. Even though I shut down my season I was still doing rehab. So, I can say for the most part, right now I’m 100 percent healthy,” he said.

Bloomfield, who holds the Class 1 400m record at the ISSA Boys and Girls' Championships in Jamaica at 44.98, which made him the first Jamaican schoolboy at break 45 second at the championships,  will also be going into this season with a new camp after leaving MVP international and joining the Tumbleweed Track Club based in Florida.

Other members of that club include Olympic 200 metres champion, Andre DeGrasse, and former Calabar rival and Olympic 400 metres finalist, Christopher Taylor.

Bloomfield expanded on training alongside Taylor at the club.

“I can say it’s a very good experience, so far. I mean, we had that high school rivalry so now to put that aside and focus now as professional athletes and train in the same group, I’d say it’s good so far. He’s a very good training partner and I can see us building a very good relationship as the season progresses,” he said.

In a trip down memory lane for many fans of the Jamaican High School Track and Field Championships, or “Champs” as it is affectionately called, Bloomfield was asked about his famous showdown with Taylor on the anchor leg in the Boys open 4x400 metres relay in 2016.

When asked if he would have done anything differently looking back, Bloomfield said he wouldn’t change anything.

“I wouldn’t have used a different strategy because I don’t think people really paid attention to how close our personal bests were. At the time his personal best was 45.2 and mine was 44.9. That’s a very close margin so for me to get the baton 15 metres behind, I can’t be the one to go catch him and then sit behind him. I had to try to zoom ahead and try to hold form and unfortunately it did not work out,” he said.

The full interview can be seen on the Sportsmax TV YouTube channel.