Eight Jamaican senior track and field athletes, led by Olympic sprint hurdles champion Omar McLeod and Christopher Taylor, will open their 2021 indoors season today at the American Track League meet #1 at Randal Tyson Indoor Centre in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

The meet is part of the expanded World Athletics’ Indoors Tour that will see “three tiers of competition — Gold, Silver and Bronze — comprising 26 meetings spread across 12 countries in Europe and North America”, according to the World Athletics website.

“The expanded tour will broaden the geographical spread of meetings around the world and incorporate additional area level competitions.”

In addition to McLeod, who will contest the men’s 60m, and Taylor, who will run the 400m, Brittany Anderson is down for two events while Senoj-Jay Givans, Andre Ewars, Tyquendo Tracey, Christania Williams and Shiann Salmon will also be taking part.

McLeod, Ewars, Givans and Tracey will all contest the men’s 60m dash that will also see Canada’s Andre DeGrasse, Nigeria Divine Oduduru, American Trayvon Bromell and Great Britain’s Adam Gemili.

Anderson will contest the 60m hurdles as well as the 60m dash where she will be joined by Christania Williams who will go up against the likes of Nigeria’s Blessing Okagbare and Americans Gabby Thomas and Morolake Akinosin.

In the hurdles event, Anderson will go up against Great Britain’s Tiffany Porter, Norway’s Isabelle Pedersen and American Ashley Spencer.

Taylor, the World Under-18 champion in 2018, is the only non-American in the men’s 400m field which includes Fred Kerley, Amere Lattin and Kyle Clemmons.

Salmon will contest the women’s 300m where she will race against fellow hurdlers Kori Carter and Kendra Harrison.

— Paul Reid