Wednesday’s second afternoon of the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Championships set for the National Stadium is promising a veritable feast of sprinting that would grace any junior track and field championships on the planet and satiate the palate of the speed crazy Jamaican athletics fans.

The first meaningful adjustment in the ‘Champs schedule in decades, one that has been welcomed by the full spectrum of stakeholders, including fans, coaches and athletes, sees the semi-finals and finals of the seven 100m classes closing the show on Wednesday.

Whether the changes in the schedule were brought about with this in mind or not, the organisers should be anticipating a full house, or as close to the 20,000 limit as possible as one of the finest and deepest sprint field to ever grace Champs will line up.

Whether you are a casual fan who only shows up at the big meets or the ‘die-hard’ fan who makes the weekly trek across the island to watch the various development meet, Champs this year promises a smorgasbord of world-class track and field, a week before we host the Carifta Games and with the World Under-20 set to come in a few months time.

And it is not just in the sprints that we will see quality, but in the throws and jumps as well, especially the horizontal variety.

But it is the sprint events that get the Jamaican blood pumping, and if just two of the seven 100m events, the boys and girls’ Class 1 live up to expectation, then in years to come Champs 2022 could be spoken about as one of the best ever, for depth of quality.

There are at least three very fast runners in the girls’ race led by Hydel High’s Brianna Lyston and including the World Under-20 champion Tina Clayton.

The boys’ race is even deeper with six athletes already under 10.50 seconds, led by Herbert Morrison’s DeAndre Daley who won the Under-20 boys’ 100m at the Carifta Trials with 10.32 seconds a day after running 10.30 seconds in the first round.

Whether the records of 11.13 seconds set by Vere Technical’s Veronica Campbell Brown in 2001, a year after she won a relay medal at the Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia, and Kingston College’s Zharnel Hughes’ 10.12 seconds set in 2014 will be broken ,is still to be seen.

History will show that running records in sprint finals is more than unusual and in the heat of battle, winning takes precedence.

Lyston’s mouthwatering World Under-20 leading 11.14 seconds done in the first round of Central Champs at GC Foster in early March sets the bar, at a very lofty place it can be argued.

Whether she can run as fast in the final, is still to be seen and it is certain that one or both of the Clayton twins are expected to be there with her.

Tina has an 11.09 seconds personal best done at the World Under-20 championships in Nairobi, Kenya, last year while Tia has run 11.29 seconds in 2020.

The adjustments to the schedule will help here as the athletes would have run just once, on Tuesday’s first day, unlike the past where they would run the first round of the 200m before the semi-finals in the 100m.

On the boys’ side, Bouwahjgie Nkrumie of Kingston College won the bronze last year and under most conditions would be the favourite to take home gold this year.

The re-emergence of Herbert Morrison’s Daley and the experience of Edwin Allen’s Bryan Levell, who was fifth in the 100m and second in the 200m, are enough to cast some doubt’s about the Kingston College man’s credentials.

Throw St Catherine High’s Sandrey Davison, the reigning national junior 100m champion, in the mix and the picture gets even murkier, or rather the odds get longer.

What is certain, however, April 6 could be one of the most exciting Wednesdays ever at Champs.