Hunt for medals in Eugene begins
Coach Cameron wants to set the tone and kick off campaign with medal performance in mixed relay
Published:Friday | July 15, 2022 | 12:11 AMDaniel Wheeler/Staff Reporter
EUGENE, Oregon:
For the 18th time, Jamaican athletes will begin their pursuit of glory as the 2022 World Athletic Championships begins today at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon.
With the mixed relays medals to be decided later today, event coach Bert Cameron hopes that Jamaica will set the tone with an early medal.
The 4x400 metres mixed relay heats start at 1:45 p.m. Jamaica time and will be the country’s only participation in the morning session. The team will hope to match their podium finish of 2019 when the event made its major championship debut in Doha. Jamaica will be in heat two which starts at 1:56 p.m
For Cameron, it is important for Jamaica to set the tone from the start in an event that they are fully committed to excelling at.
“Every medal is a medal. The mixed race is a really exciting race. We are seriously preparing for this. We are making sure that we put the best team out there and see how good they can be. We are looking forward to it. It is a good start medal-wise to put the momentum in our camp and see where we go from there,” Cameron told The Gleaner.
Cameron revealed that the team will be Demish Gaye, Roniesha McGregor, Karayme Bartley. and Tiffany James-Rose. It’s a team in which he and coach Paul Francis are confident in their ability to perform.
“It took us a while to put it together. but I think we came up with a good fit and a team that is going out there tomorrow to qualify for the finals,” Cameron said.
Jamaica took silver three years ago with the team of James-Rose, Javon Francis, Nathon Allen, and Roneisha McGregor. Cameron says that he does not anticipate using any athletes designated to run the individual 400m events for the team, ruling out Allen’s participation as the heats begin tomorrow.
“We don’t want to have any kind of mess-up in the 400m. We have to give them their best chance, so we cannot put them out one day early,” Cameron said. Quartermiler Gregory Prince, who is in the relay pool, will not feature as he arrived yesterday at camp after gaining his American visa to compete earlier this week. The top three teams in the heats will advance to the final scheduled for 9:50 p.m.
Today’s opening day will also be D-Day for World long jump champion Tajay Gayle, who makes a decision today on whether to defend his title as he continues to nurse the bone bruise that he suffered at the National Championships in late June. The qualification round of the men’s long jump will be at 8 p.m. Jamaica time. Gayle had earlier indicated that depending on his progress during training, he would determine if he is strong enough to compete.
However, according to his coach, Stephen Francis, he had difficulty sprinting in his final training session yesterday and is not optimistic about his chances to compete despite being on the shortlist.
“I am not optimistic, but we will see tomorrow (today). He is a young man, and you have to convince him that he does not jeopardise a potential future for what he thinks is a gain now. But from what I could observe, he could not really sprint,” Francis said. Should Gayle be unable to compete, national champion Wayne Pinnock will make his senior championship debut as the country’s lone representative in Group A
The evening session will be highlighted by the first round of the men’s 100m, featuring 2011 World champion Yohan Blake, Oblique Seville, and Ackeem Blake at 8:50 p.m. Blake and Seville are in the top 10 for the fastest times in the world this year with times of 9.85 and 9.86 seconds, respectively. Ackeem is tied for 11th with 9.93.
World Championship silver medalist Danniel Thomas-Dodd and World championship debutant Lloydricia Cameron will compete in the women’s shot put scheduled for 7:05 p.m. Cameron has a season’s best of 18.01m while Thomas-Dodd’s best this season is 19.53m.