Broadbell, Parchment have unfinished business
Commonwealth Games record holder Rasheed Broadbell and Olympic Games champion Hansle Parchment will both have unfinished business at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, in August.
Broadbell just missed qualifying for the 2022 World Championships finals by one-hundredths of a second, while Parchment, in the form of his life and coming off the Olympic Games gold medal a year earlier, pulled up while going through his warm-up routine just prior to the final.
While both men will no doubt be medal favourites in Budapest, they must first make the Jamaican team at this weekend’s National Championships at the National Stadium.
Given the uncertain nature of the event, with 10 barriers to clear, the hurdles can be an unforgiving race and there will also be several worthy candidates lined up to challenge.
Newly-minted NCAA Division One outdoor champion Phillip Lemonious; United States-based Jaheem Hayles, who was third at the NCAA nationals; Giano Roberts; the former World Under-20 champion Damion Thomas; World Under-20 silver medallists Tyler Mason and Orlando Bennett; and Lafranz Campbell are among the list of people who will be gunning for a spot on the team.
Olympic bronze medallist Ronald Levy should be at the very top of the list, but word coming from his camp is that he might not be at his very best, having competed over the hurdles just once this year after being out for most of last year.
Lemonious will feel he has something to prove because he failed to get past the first round last year after just missing out on a spot to the Olympics in 2021, placing fourth at the championships.