Former national 100m champion Tyquendo Tracey says his form will be right where it needs to be for the National Trials ahead of the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, this summer.

Tracey’s season’s best over the 100m is 10.26 seconds, which he clocked at the Racer’s Grand Prix on June 3, then again at Quest to Budapest 2 on Saturday. Both events took place at the National Stadium in Kingston. He also clocked 10.27s on June 10 at a Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA) All-Comers Meet at Ashenheim Stadium in St Andrew.

But while those times may be modest in comparison to Tracey’s potential opponents, should he qualify for the World Championships, he is not concerned about his form as he says he is used to this kind of progression.

“Honestly, I’m in great form,” Tracey told the Jamaica Observer recently. “It might sound weird to say because I recently ran 10.2, but it’s normal for me.

“The year I ran my first sub-10 (a personal best of 9.96s in July 2018), I was running consistent 10.4s. It’s just a matter of getting the body and the mind to align when it’s time, and as long as you stay fit and put in the training, you’ll be fine.

“Everybody’s programme is different. I’m sure you’ve seen other guys running super-fast already. That’s just their programme. I’ve never been wired that way. For me, the aim is always Trials and onwards, so that’s what I’m looking at.”

Along with the focus on making the team to Budapest this year, Tracey has also been keen to give back to the sport and has recently done so through assisting Mathue Tapper’s Tapp Track Academy, based at Maxfield Park in St Andrew.

Tracey, who was a special guest at the club’s recent media day, donated bottled water as the athletes, mostly based at Richmond Park Preparatory School, prepared for the JISA/Little Caesars National Preparatory Championships last week.

Tracey says it is important that athletes assist the next generation and remember their start in the sport. He also warned against athletes letting their egos grow as they become more successful.

“I’ll be 100 per cent honest, you do have athletes [with big egos] but for the ones who [don’t], I always applaud them because it’s good to remember where you’re coming from,” he said.

“I can tell you for sure, sometimes, you have a lot of people who, it’s not that they forgot where they’re from but they just don’t want the memory of where they’re from. A lot of people don’t go back to it because when you think of a person who was eating from a pot with 16 others every day down in the ghetto, he leaves and probably, in his mind, it’s not even safe for him to go back there. So, a lot of people get out and stay out. You have to also look at it from that angle.

“But then, you also have some people who feel like they got to a stage and you’re not supposed to talk to them. For me, I don’t care who you are. Once you say, ‘Hi,’ I’m going to say hi. Respect is due to everybody.”

Tracey says he has one more outing on the track before the JAAA National Senior Championships (Trials) from July 6 to 9.

Among his opponents for one of three 100m spots for Team Jamaica is Titan Track Club’s Ackeem Blake, whose season’s best of 9.89s ranks him third in the world this year behind Kenya’s Ferdinand Omanyala (9.84s) and reigning 100m world champion Fred Kerley of the United States of America (9.88s).