KINGSTON, Jamaica — Calabar High School star Christopher Taylor will match strides with American 400m Olympic champion Lashawn Merritt in the 200m at the Jamaica Invitational (JII) IAAF World Challenge Meet on Saturday inside the National Stadium.

The 18-year-old Jamaican prodigy, Taylor, who has a 200m personal best of 20.35s will bring added excitement to the meet as Jamaicans are eager to see how he will perform against a top class senior opposition and it couldn’t get any better than the 31-year-old Merritt, who has a personal best of 19.74s established in 2016.

Last year, Merritt was second in 20.28s behind Canadian Andre DeGrasse who won in 20.14s and will be aiming to go one better.

Taylor on the other hand has been running the 200m more regularly as he recovers from an injury that hampers him over his pet 400m event.

It is expected that Taylor will run the 200m at the World Junior Championship in July and this acid test will give him and his coach an idea as to where he is at.

Canadian sprinter Aaron Brown, who has a personal best of 9.96s and 20.00s over 100m and 200m respectively, will also be in the race.

Howard Walker