Kimberley Williamson, Gleneve Grange and Kimarra McDonald have been added to Jamaica’s World Championships team to London, bringing the tally of athletes to 59.

The three have been added by request from the governing body the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) based on their quota system.

The IAAF makes allowance for athletes who did not make the qualifying standards to be included and high jumper Williamson, shot-putter Grange and 800m runner McDonald got a second chance to be at the prestigious championships based on their ranking positions.

Williamson, 23, who achieved her personal best of 1.91m in the high jump in May 2017, missed the qualifying mark of 1.94m by a whisker.

“To be honest, my head hasn’t wrapped around it yet. I am happy, because this season my aim was to make it to the World Champs,” Williamson told the Jamaica Observer.

The IAAF has a quota of 32 athletes for the high jump and Williamson, who is ranked 28th, has been invited and is currently at the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA) training camp in Birmingham.

The JAAA’s team manager Ian Forbes confirmed to the Observer that the three athletes have been invited and they are making every effort to facilitate them. A press release was later sent out to the media.

“The Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association wishes to advise that three athletes have been added to its World Championships team to the IAAF World Championships London 2017.

“Every effort is being made to facilitate their participation with respect to visa procurement, travel and other logistics issues. We congratulate the three ladies and wish them all the very best in representing their country,” it stated.

While Williamson will be the only Jamaican high jumper on show, Grange will join Danniel Thomas as Jamaica’s second shot-putter in London. Thomas easily qualified with 19.15m which ranks her sixth in the world.

Grange, a versatile 22-year-old shot-putter with Florida State University and formerly of Holmwood Technical High, has a season’s and personal best of 17.29m, which was just short of the 17.75m qualifying mark.

McDonald, 30, was added to the IAAF quota list of 48 for the women’s 800m with a season’s best of 2:02.07 minutes, which was below the qualifying mark of 2:01.00. McDonald, who clocked 2:03.91, was fourth at the Jamaican Championship behind Natoya Goule, who won in 2:00.90. Jasmine Fray was second in 2:02.28, but qualified based on her 2:00.69 achieved in February while running indoors.

McDonald joins both Goule and Fray in representing Jamaica at the World Championships.

— Howard Walker