Former Rusea’s High sprinter Jevaughn Whyte and Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA)/GraceKennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Athletic Championships girls’ Class 3 sprint double champion Levanya Williams both lowered their personal best times in the 100m and 200m at last weekend’s third and last Jamaica Olympic Association (JOA)/Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA) Olympic Destiny Series at the National Stadium.

The athletes were among several dozens, both local- and overseas-based, who are in their final preparation for the JAAA national senior and junior trials that will start in two weeks at the National Stadium.

The athletes will be hoping to make several national teams later this year, including the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan; the World Under-20 Championships in Nairobi, Kenya, and the North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletic Association (NACAC) Under-23 and Under-18 championships set for San Jose, Costa Rica.

Whyte, who now attends GC Foster Sports College and was a finalist in the Class 1 boys’ 100m and 200m events at the County of Cornwall Athletics Association (COCAA) Western Champs last year, ran 10.42 seconds (1.7m/s) in the 100m, beating the 10.67 seconds that he ran at the St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) Invitational last year.

Two-time World Under-20 champion and former Herbert Morrison runner Dexter Lee, who is making a comeback this year, ran a season’s best 10.46 seconds (1.7m/s); former Merlene Ottey High runner Ackeem Blake, who is still a junior, clocked 10.50 seconds (-0.6m/s), while Raheim Scott of Rusea’s High ran a wind-aided 10.56 seconds (2.1m/s).

In the 200m, Whyte, who was fifth overall, clocked 21.13 seconds (-0.5m/s), under the 21.64 seconds he had run in Kingston in April 2019.

Williams, who was one of the big surprises at the ISSA Championships when she copped the double, lowered her 100m time to 11.81 seconds (1.1m/s) from the 12.18 seconds she had run into a stiff negative wind of -2.4 metres per second to win the final at the ISSA Champs.

Former Cambridge High and Herbert Morrison sprinter Remona Burchell of Sprintec was fifth overall with 11.45 seconds (1.3m/s), in the race that was won by Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce in a new national record 10.63 seconds.

Leyonie Smith of Spot Valley ran a season’s best 12.14 seconds (1.1m/s), while 400m/800m specialist Oneika Brissett of Rusea’s High ran a personal best 12.31 seconds (1.1m/s).

In the 200m, the 15-year-old Williams clocked 24.21 seconds (0.6m/s), under the 24.50 seconds (-1.3m/s) that she ran in the finals at ISSA Champs last month, while her teammate Salieci Myles ran a season’s best 24.90 seconds.

Myles also ran the 100m hurdles in 13.87 seconds (0.6m/s), the same time she ran for fourth in the Class 1 100m hurdles at the ISSA Champs.

Jordani Woodley of Rusea’s High, the COCAA Western Champs gold medallist, was second overall in the men’s 110m hurdles, clocking 14.03 seconds (-3.7m/s) in his first time over the senior height.

Aalliyah Francis, the girls’ Class 1 Western Champs and ISSA Champs 200m/400m champion, ran 54.15 seconds in her first race since the ISSA Champs, while her Rusea’s High teammate, Brissett, ran 55.63 seconds.

Western Champs Class 1 boys’ 400m winner Devante Haywood was 10th overall in the men’s 400m in 48.94 seconds.

In the field events, Shamella Donaldson and Courtney Lawrence, former Western Champs and ISSA Champs gold medallists, finished second in their respective events.

Donaldson, of The University of the West Indies, Mona (UWI-Mona), who won the Class 1 girls’ discus throw while attending Rusea’s High, threw a personal best 53.53m in the women’s discus throw.

Lawrence, who won the junior college men’s indoor and outdoor shot put championships while at Barton Community College, threw 18.21m in the event on Saturday.