Highly-rated Jamaican junior sprinter Jazeel Murphy is to race less this season as he seeks to compete in his first global championships, the IAAF World Junior Championships later this year in Barcelona, Spain.

Despite winning at almost every level, the Bridgeport High speedster has been affected by a series of injuries that has curtailed his season and frustrated his progress.

Last season he appeared well on the way to competing at the global level, the IAAF World Youth Championships in France, but was forced to withdraw from the Jamaican team after he failed to recover sufficiently from a thigh injury he suffered at the CARIFTA Games in Montego Bay where he won the Under-20 boys 100m in a personal best 10.27 seconds.

He was granted a medical exemption to miss the JAAA National Junior Trials last year to give the injury more chance to heal and after attending the pre-Championships camp, was forced to end his season earlier than expected once more.

Murphy has raced sparingly so far this season and told reporters on Saturday this would be the trend this season.

After winning the Boys Under-20 100m final in 10.74 running into a stiff negative win of 4.4 metres per second at the Stadium East track on the first day of the Burger King/JAAA CARIFTA Trials, Murphy said his coaches had take the decision to race him less this year.

The World Juniors in Spain, July 10-15, he said, was one of the goals this year, but the ISSA Boys Champs later this month would be a good marker.

“I will be ready for Champs and I hope to run fast,” he told reporters on Saturday. He admitted that his start was still a work in progress, but he was still working on the first part of this race as he hopes to stop having to chase his opponents.

Murphy reported that he was not 100 per cent fit, but said he was “getting stronger” and hopefully, would last through July this year instead of ending his season in April.