MOSCOW, Russia — Despite what many think might be the weakest team in terms of depth to represent Jamaica at a senior global championship, Jamaica could still come away with a double-digit medal haul from the 14th IAAF Wold Championships that gets underway today (Friday night Jamaica time) at the Luzhniki stadium in Moscow, Russia.

A number of top athletes, including multiple medal winners such as Veronica Campbell Brown, Asafa Powell and Sherone Simpson will be absent due to drug suspensions, while men’s 100m defending champion Yohan Blake is home nursing a hamstring injury.

Melaine Walker, who won gold and silver at the last two stagings, did not make the team this year as she did not take part in the National Trials.

Additionally, no fewer than 15 athletes, including 18-year-old schoolboy Javon Francis, will be making their first trip to a senior championship. Nevertheless, medal expectations are high.

Jamaica has won more than nine medals at a World Championships only twice — a record 13 in 2009 in Berlin when Usain Bolt established both his world records of 9.58 seconds in the 100m and 19.19 seconds in the 200m, and four years earlier in Osaka, Japan, winning 10 medals.

Jamaica has won 43 of its 89 medals at the World Championships in the last six stagings, and on paper could win as many as four gold medals, two silver and with some luck, maybe five bronze.

Accidents and false starts notwithstanding, the betting on Bolt losing either sprint gold medals should have been closed a long time ago, and the only question should be how fast he will run and who will be second and third behind him.

With two more gold medals to bring his individual tally to five overall, Bolt would take over clear second place on Jamaica’s list of most World championships medals behind the incomparable Merlene Ottey’s 11 overall.

Ottey has just two golds, however, to go with her four silver and five bronze, and one more gold would give Bolt the most-ever wins by a Jamaican.

Warren Weir, who was a surprise last year but has backed up his Olympic bronze in the 200m with a series of sub-20 second runs this year including a personal best 19.79 seconds, should move up a notch to silver in the half-lap event behind Bolt.

In the men’s 100m, Nesta Carter could ride his fortune all the way to the podium in the men’s 100m and could medal after replacing the injured Blake in the Jamaican team.

The Daegu finalist and World Indoor silver medallist who was fourth at the National Trials will need to be consistent through the rounds in Moscow if he is to claim his first outdoor individual medal.

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce showed she was ready to reclaim the women’s 100m title she won in Berlin after running a world-Leading 10.77 seconds in the semi-finals of the London Diamond League, and despite the impressive credentials of African record holder Blessing Okagbare, who ran 10.79 seconds in the final, the Pocket Rocket should pocket her second World Championships 100m gold.

A second gold medal could be in the offing in the 200m where Fraser-Pryce has been concentrating this season and with the seeming off-form of American Allyson Felix, could leave the door open for the Jamaican to sneak through.

A Racers Track Club men’s 4x100m team of Mario Forysthe, Kemar Bailey-Cole, Weir and Bolt ran 37.75 seconds at the London meet, the second best in the world so far. Replace Forsythe with the dependable Carter on the lead-off and Jamaica should win a third straight World Championships gold medal in the relay.

A fifth World Record since 2008 in the relays might be a stretch without the likes of Michael Frater and Blake.

The women’s 4x100m team will be weakened without Campbell Brown and Simpson, but should still be good enough to take the bronze, and who knows, the silver, depending on the baton changes.

Fraser-Pryce’s speed could be better served on the anchor with Schillonie Calvert leading off to Kerron Stewart with Anniesha McLaughlin on the third leg.

All things being equal, both mile-relay teams should take home bronze medals, but the men’s team will need bolstering from the veteran Leford Green, the 400m hurdler, if they are to seriously challenge for a podium place.

Triple jumper Kimberly Williams has had a good season and a medal should be well within her grasp.

After three straight fourth-place finishes in major championships for 400m hurdler Kaliese Spencer, her coach Stephen Francis might have changed their approach and will gradually build up to the championships this time.

Spencer has won the last three 400m hurdles Diamond Races by dominating from the start of the season, but her results so far have been less than stellar.

The Czech Republic’s Zuzana Hejnova’s form has been so awesome this year that she might have to trip twice to lose the gold medal, and Great Britain’s Perri Shakes-Drayton is a solid silver medal prospect; after that the bronze is up for grabs.

But for his injury at the JAAA National Senior Trials in June, sprint hurdler Hansle Parchment, the Olympic Games bronze medallist, would be a solid lock for a medal.

Having not raced since May, he should be race rusty.

Two-time national long jump champion Damar Forbes has had a good season and won at the Paris Diamond League in his first professional outing.

Given the lack of real depth in the event this season, however, a good series could land the 19th-ranked jumper on the podium.