PARIS, France — Jamaica’s Nickisha Pryce, a favourite for the gold medal in the women’s 400m event, will begin her campaign in the heats on Monday. Pryce, 23, is the national champion in the event. She is having an outstanding season, having broken the national 400m record twice this year. She will be joined in the heats by her compatriots Stacey Ann Williams and Junelle Bromfield. The heats are scheduled to get underway at 4:55 am Jamaica time.

Pryce, who is the world leader in the event this year, is coming off an excellent performance at the London Diamond League in England in July, where she raced to a national record time of 48.57 seconds. She eclipsed her own previous record of 48.89, which she set at the NCAA National Division 1 Championships in June.

Pryce’s coach, Chris Johnson, told the Jamaica Observer a few days ago that while he expects the event to be tough, he is confident that she will win a medal for Jamaica.

“She is definitely a medal contender, and that is the goal — to get a medal,” he said. “But there are a lot of great athletes in the race, and we are going to respect them and go out and run our race very confidently.”

Pryce will enter the championships as the fastest 400m runner in the world this year. Williams, who finished as a runner-up to Pryce at the National Championships in June, will enter the championships with a season’s best time of 50.56 seconds in the 400m. She is yet to break the 50-second barrier, with a personal best time of 50.12.

She said that she is delighted to be competing in her first Olympic Games and she plans to deliver her best to make it to the final of the event.

“Honestly, this one is special because this is my first time being in an individual event, so I am prepared and I am ready, and I am excited,” she said. “I am pretty confident because I have been training, and I feel like that is where I bank on for confidence. I trust what I have been doing, so I am pretty confident, and my preparations have been going [well]. Our camp was in Spain for three weeks, and everything is going smoothly.”

Bromfield will be competing at the Olympic Games for the second time in her career, but this is the first time that she will be participating in an individual event. She finished third at the National Championships, where she ran a personal best time of 50.74 seconds in the final. She said she is focused on delivering a strong performance for the country in Paris. She says she has done hard work in her preparations for the Games and is aiming to produce her best efforts on the day.

“I am feeling good and I am excited for running to start because I just want to get it out of the way,” she said. “My preparations have been going well because I am just taking it one step at a time and seeing what I can really do.”

National champion Malik James-King, Jaheel Hyde, and Roshawn Clarke will contest the heats of the men’s 400m hurdles at 3:05 am Jamaica time. Roje Stona, Ralford Mullings, and Traves Smikle will compete in the men’s discus throw, starting at 3:10 am Jamaica time.