JAMAICA’S hope of qualifying for the men’s 4x100m relays at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Japan, in September took a dent after it was confirmed that Ackeem Blake will miss the London Diamond League meet.

Blake, who was a member of the Jamaican men’s sprint relay team that took the bronze medal at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, will miss the event because of what the
Jamaica Observer heard was “an administrative mishap”. He was due to run the men’s 100m as well as the lead-off leg of the relay in London.

It is, however, understood that national champion and world leader Kishane Thompson, his MVP Track and Field Club teammate Rohan Watson, as well as Oblique Seville are expected to feature in Jamaica’s relay team that will race against the Netherlands, Poland, Scotland and two teams from Great Britain. Seville is also down to compete in the individual 100m in London.

This will be Jamaica’s second attempt at qualifying for the men’s sprint relays, after missing out on an automatic spot at the World Athletics Relays in China in March, twice failing to finish the event.

Another attempt was made at last weekend’s Barbados Grand Prix when the Jamaican quartet ran 38.46 seconds, outside the 38.19 required to get into the top 16 in the world and qualification.

According to World Athletics qualification rules, 14 of the 16 teams for all five relays earn their spots over two rounds at the World Athletics Relays, with the next two spots filled by the next fastest teams in the qualification window.

Presently, the Netherlands are 15th with 37.87, followed by Nigeria with 38.20, Brazil (38.40), and Jamaica (38.45).

Despite already securing their spot at the World Championships, Jamaica are also down to contest the women’s 4x100m with a team featuring mostly runners from the MVP club.

In addition to the women’s 4x100m Jamaica have qualified in the men’s 4x400m from the World Relays as well as the mixed relays in which they are currently 16th in the ranking, based on the 3:11.06 minutes ran at last year’s Olympics.

There is a plan to run a women’s 4x400m team at the NACAC Championships in Freeport, The Bahamas, in mid August to qualify.

Meanwhile, eight Jamaicans are set to contest individual events at the London Diamond League. They include recently crowned national champions Carey McLeod in the men’s long jump, Lamara Distin in the women’s high jump, and Ashanti Moore in the women’s 200m.

Seville, however, making a rare appearance in Europe outside of an international championships, will be making his Diamond League debut. He is to go up against a tough field including training partner Zharnel Hughes of Great Britain, Akani Simbine of South Africa, and Olympic champion Noah Lyles of the United States, who will be running his first competitive 100m of the season.

Seville has the fastest time of that group this season, clocking 9.83 while placing second at the Jamaica athletics championships last month.

McLeod will seek his first Diamond League win of the season and will go up against world leader Miltiadis Tentoglou of Greece, Liam Adcock of Australia, Simon Ehammer of Switzerland, as well as world Under-20 record holder Mattia Furlani of Italy.

Former World Champion Tajay Gayle will make his first appearance after being sidelined with injuries.

Distin will hope to rebound after coming off back-to-back sub-par performances at the Jamaica championships and at the Brescia Grand Prix meet on Tuesday.

Moore, who won the women’s 200m at the Jamaica championships, is yet to achieve the World Championships automatic qualifying time of 22.57. Her season’s best is 22.66.

Moore, who has a lifetime-best 22.49 set in 2023, will get solid competition when she lines up against St Lucia’s Julien Alfred, Dina Asher-Smith of Great Britain, and Ireland’s Rhasidat Adeleke.

Andrenette Knight and Janieve Russell will contest the women’s 400m hurdles in which they are to race against world leader Femke Bol of the Netherlands and Gianna Woodruff of Panama.

Many-time national champion Natoya Goule-Toppin is to line up in the women’s 800m, facing a quality field led by Halimah Nakaayi of Uganda, Georgia Hunter Bell of Great Britain, Sarah Billings of Australia, and Addison Wiley of the USA — who have all run under 1:58.00 this season.

Carey McLeod (Photo: AFP)