Nkrumie makes season’s debut at Youngster Goldsmith

THE 2023 local track and field season will step up a notch today with the staging of two development meets. The National Stadium will host the Youngster Goldsmith Classics while the JAAA/Puma meet is on at the Jamalco Sports Club in Clarendon. Both meets will be used as qualifiers for this year’s ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Athletics Championships.

Most attention will be focused on the Youngster Goldsmith meet which is back after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The meet is held in honour of a former Kingston College sportsmaster. The meet gets under way at 8 a.m. with the 400m hurdles open for girls and for the first time this season, there will be preliminary round and finals for all sprint hurdles events.

Set to make his season’s debut at today’s meet is World Under-20 100 metres silver medallist and national junior record holder for the event, Bouwahgjie Nkrumie of Kingston College (KC).

Nkrumie, who clocked 10.02 seconds to erase the previous National junior record of 10.11 seconds held jointly by Christopher Taylor and Yohan Blake, told The Gleaner in a recent interview that he is a bit nervous ahead of his first competitive run for the season.

“I am a bit nervous as I normally am before my first race of the season. I know there is a lot of expectations from my fans and I want to put on a show for them,” said the 18-year-old who stated that he is ready to shake off some rust after his late start to the season.

The hurdlers will also be in the spotlight at the National Stadium. World Under-20 100m hurdles silver medallist, Alexis James of Petersfield High, will take centre stage in the Class One 100m hurdles where she will be up against Immaculate Conception’s Essence Burbridge and Edwin Allen High’s duo of Natasha Fox and Tonie-Ann Forbes.

In the Class Two 100m hurdles, Keira Meikle of Holmwood Technical, with a season’s best of 13.55 seconds at the Queen’s/Grace Jackson meet, will take on the St Jago High pair of Bryana Davidson and Brianna Campbell, St Catherine High’s Jerese Allwood and St Elizabeth Technical’s Habibah Harris.

In Class Three 80m hurdles, Michaelann Lindo and Akelah Ellis of St Catherine, along with Angel Robinson of Edwin Allen, look set for a ding-dong battle. In Class Four 70m hurdles, Holmwood’s Moya Oakley and St Catherine’s, Gabrielle Treasure should battle for top spot.

The Class One boys’ 110m hurdles is expected to be a thriller as season leader Shamer Blake of St Elizabeth Technical with 13.99 seconds will lock horns with World Under- 20 finalist Demario Prince of St Jago, Daniel Wright of Excelsior High and Amontae Wray of KC.

In Class Two 100m, Shaquane Gordon of Calabar with a season’s best of 13.82 seconds in a negative wind of 3.5 metres per second, will be hoping to fend off the likes of Jamaica College’s Dontae Watson, KC’s Kaheim Carty and St Elizabeth’s Rickoy Hunter while in Class Three 100m hurdles, all eyes will be on KC’s Timothy Plummer.

In other events today, Edwin Allen’s Serena Cole, the World Under-20 100m silver medallist, will make her second appearance of the season in the event following her debut several weeks ago at the JC Danny Williams Pure Water meet where she won in a moderate 11.58.