Changing of the guard?
Women’s 400 metres at Trials set to be a showstopper
IN JUST over three weeks’ time, the country’s top senior athletes will be seeking places on the national team to this summer’s 19th World Athletics Championships to be held in Budapest, Hungary, from August 19 to 27. The Jamaica National Senior...
IN JUST over three weeks’ time, the country’s top senior athletes will be seeking places on the national team to this summer’s 19th World Athletics Championships to be held in Budapest, Hungary, from August 19 to 27.
The Jamaica National Senior Championships (Trials) will be held from July 6 to 9 and it is expected to be one of the most competitive Championships with a number of first-timers expected to force their way into the team.
One of the events at the National Championships which will be very hard to call will be the women’s 400 metres. At the moment, there are no clear favourites to win and there is every possibility of a shock result.
A year ago, Candice McLeod won her first National Senior title, finishing ahead of veteran, Stephenie Ann McPherson and Charokee Young. McLeod, who like Young were the only Jamaicans under the 50-second barrier last year, went on to finish seventh in the final at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon. McPherson was fifth.
SEASON STRUGGLES
Both McLeod, who is busy on the Diamond League circuit this season, and McPherson, seem to be struggling this season. McLeod has a season’s best, 50.80 seconds and is the fourth-fastest Jamaican to date. McPherson is even further off the pace. The 34-year-old McPherson has only gone 51.69 seconds this season and sits as the eighth fastest. Both could find themselves out of the top three at the National Championships.
After a tough collegiate season last year, Young and Stacyann Williams, who were third and fourth at the National Championships, have been more rested this season and as a result, are well placed going into the Trials where Williams is the country’s number one athlete with a season best 50.12 seconds. Young is third best with 50.45.
One person who could spoil the party here, however, is former Vere Technical athlete, Nickeisha Pryce, who is the country’s most improved quarter-miler this season.
Competing for the University of Arkansas, Pryce was third at the recent NCAA Division One Outdoor Championships in Austin, Texas, in a personal best, 50.23 seconds, to be the second fastest Jamaican this season.
Never a standout at the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Athletics Championships, Pryce, who was beaten at the NCAAs by sub-50-second performances, has improved every time she takes the track this season.
With more than three weeks’ break before the Trials, there may be more in store.
With the likes of Roneisha McGregor and Tiffany James Rose missing in action all season and Junelle Bromfield struggling, this could be the year for the new stars to make their mark.
There are other names in the mix as well, with the likes of Rickianna Russell and Joanna Reid, who was part of the University of Arkansas women’s winning 4x400-metre relay team at the NCAA Championships, making things sticky for McLeod and McPherson.
Trials this year could see a changing of the guard in the women’s one-lap event.