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BUDAPEST, Hungary — Jamaica’s quest for medals at the 19th World Athletics Championships will get underway this morning (Budapest time) at the newly constructed National Athletics Centre on the banks of the famous Blue Danube river, and there is confidence that Jamaica will win double-digit medals for the third-straight staging and fourth of the last five.
Ten individual athletes, including two world leaders and the mixed relays team, will contest today’s first day for Jamaica, with another 18 athletes joining the competition tomorrow.
Eighteen-year-old triple jump phenom Jaydon Hibbert, who is in his first senior World Championships, and female long jumper Akelia Smith are the world leaders in their events, while newly minted men’s shot put national record holder Rajindra Campbell is ranked number four in what is expected to be yet another stellar event.
Two medals will be on offer to Jamaicans on the first day, the men’s shot put and the mixed relays that will see both preliminaries and finals being held on the same day.
On Friday’s eve of the highly anticipated nine-day championships Maurice Wilson, technical leader of the Jamaican team, was brimming with confidence.
“In terms of where we are now I think the team is looking very good,” he told the Jamaica Observer following a practice session on Friday. “Coming out of the camp we saw some interesting performances in terms of their training performances. I’m just coming from the track, and those athletes who I saw at the track are looking extremely sharp and so [Saturday] we expect that the competitors should proceed to the next round and [then] we’ll move it from there.”
Wilson did not back down from a medal count and said he was expecting “double digits”, describing the 65-member contingent as “a team that has great potential”.
“I’m extremely confident. Jamaican athletes are extremely professional and extremely competitive so I’m very confident,” he said.
Wilson said he thinks the team to Budapest could be one of the best ever.
“What I can say is that in terms of spread across all disciplines and the age of the youngsters in relation to transitioning, I think this may be one of our better teams,” he said while cautioning that the medals will have to be won first before the team could be compared to others in the past.
Last year Jamaica won 10 medals in Eugene, Oregon — two gold, seven silver and a bronze. They had won 12 medals in Doha, Qatar in 2019, which consisted of three gold, five silver and four bronze.
Jamaica won just four medals in London in 2017 — a gold and three bronze — after another 12 in Beijing, China in 2015.
Wilson says he is expecting Jamaica to improve in both the field events and the relays and that Jamaica could get off to a fast start with Campbell, the ‘new kid on the block’ who hopes to at least get to the final.
Campbell, who shocked many, including himself, with a massive personal best 22.22m to win in Madrid on July 22, told the Observer he is hoping to give the team a good start as he will be the first athlete in action.
“I just have to focus on the prize,” he said. “I just have to get my mind prepared; my body is already there,” he stated.
Campbell said he has been learning all he can from the more experienced campaigners.
“Under the guidance of Fedrick [Dacres] and Traves [Smikle] — they are veterans at this point — they taught me that I should not overthink things and stress myself out on the small things. And that has helped me ease my mind a little bit and that has made me more comfortable, and once I am comfortable the possibilities are endless.”
Campbell needs to throw 21.40m or better for an automatic qualifying spot in the final set for the afternoon session, but says if he is to get on the podium he will have to throw further than his current best.
Jamaica’s only medal in the men’s shot put came in 2015 in Beijing when O’Dayne Richards won the bronze, and Campbell paid homage to him by saying he had “set the pace and left his mark and its up to me to carry on”.
Hibbert, who won the World Under-20 Championships gold medal last year, seems like the heir apparent to take over the men’s triple jump and was calm in a press conference on Thursday.
Hibbert lost his most recent competition at the Monaco Diamond League to Fabrice Zango of Burkino Faso, ending a winning streak that started more than two years earlier.
Hibbert quoted his high school coach, saying: “Even though the stakes are higher and it’s a bigger level or whatever I don’t think there’s anything different — the same jumping, same mentalities, just different competitors.”
He said then: “So the only thing I’ll say is different is the maturity level and the experience level, but I’ve been to two World Under-20 championships competing on the world stage so that’s only encouragement for me, and I’m not nervous. I’m just super excited to go there, compete with the big dogs and just bring it. Who wins win.”
The announcement of the withdrawal of Portugal’s Pablo Pedro Pitchardo has opened the door just a little wider for Hibbert to win a medal, and James Beckford’s national record 17.92m could be under threat today, if not in the final set for Monday’s afternoon session.
Smith made both the long and triple jump finals last year and comes into this championships as the world leader with a personal best 7.08m, needing to jump 6.80m or better to advance to the final.
National champion Tissanna Hickling, who competed at the Olympic Games in Tokyo two years ago, will join Smith. Her coach, Kerry Lee Ricketts, thinks she can go over 7.00m as well.
The first round of the men’s 100m will be run in the afternoon session and will see last year’s finalist Oblique Seville, national champion Rohan Watson and Ryiem Forde — both in their first major championships.
Jamaica will have a trio of men — all ranked in the top 10 of the world for the discus throw and comprising Roje Stona, Fedrick Dacres and Traves Smikle — all hoping to advance to the final.
They will need to throw 66.50m or better to get the automatic qualifying mark or be in the top 12.
On Sunday, five medal favourites will make their first appearances — defending champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Shericka Jackson in the first round of the women’s 100m; Roshawn Clarke in the men’s 400m hurdles; and Rasheed Broadbell and Hansle Parchment in the 110m hurdles.
Shashalee Forbes and Natasha Morrison will also contest the women’s 100m; Jaheel Hyde and Assinie Wilson compete in the men’s 400m hurdles, and Orlando Bennett will be in the 110m hurdles.
The 400m runners will make their first appearance, with Nickesha Pryce, Candice McLeod and Charokee Young in the women’s event and Sean Bailey, Antonio Watson and Zandrion Barnes in the men’s.
Samantha Hall will compete in her second-straight World Championships women’s discus throw while men’s high jumper Romaine Beckford will make his first appearance for Jamaica at this level. Middle-distance runner Adelle Tracey will contest the women’s 1500m.