IAAF’s 17th World Championships begin today

Doha,Qatar:

After garnering a meagre four medals at the at the last IAAF World Championship in 2017, Team Jamaica has gone into laser-focused mode ahead of today’s start of the 2019 edition to try to restore its pride as one of the kingpins of the athletics world.

So high are the stakes that many of the athletes who are down to compete today have opted not to speak to the media in order to focus on executing their race strategies.

At 10 a.m., Tyquendo Tracey and Yohan Blake will begin the gargantuan task of continuing Jamaica’s streak of medalling in the men’s 100m at every Worlds since 2005.

Blake, who won the event at the 2011 World Championships, still believes he has what it takes to wrestle the title of world fastest back from the Americans. This, after Justin Gatlin and Christian Coleman beat sprinting legend Usain Bolt in his final 100m race at the London World Championships.

Tracey, who emerged as one of the likely candidates to continue Jamaica’s reign in the event, told STAR Sports that he is taking it round by round.

“I am just hoping to improve in every round and once I do that, even without a medal, I would feel like I have achieved something,” Tracey said.

The former Garvey Maceo High School athlete broke 10 seconds last year while he was under the tutelage of Stephen Francis with his 9.96 and 9.98 second efforts.

But differences forced him to leave the University of Technology based MVP Track Club.

And though he has not dipped under 10 seconds since, he came pretty close.

He ran 10.00 at the National Senior Championships earlier this year to finish second and he says he’s back in sub-10 second shape.

“I am pleased with where I am at right now,” he said. “I believe I can run under 10 seconds. That is where I am at, and that is what I am going to do.”

National record holder Natoya Goule will start her quest to become the first Jamaican woman to win a medal in the 800m at an outdoor global championships, when she contests the heat of the event at 9:10 this morning.

One of the favourites

After lowering the national record to 1:56.15 minutes last season, the former Manchester High athlete became one of the favourites to win a medal at these Championships.

That expectation became more likely when Caster Semenya retired from the sport earlier this year after refusing to carry out IAAF instructions to lower her testosterone levels.

Goule’s 1:57.90 minutes this year makes her the second fastest woman coming into the meet behind American Ajee Wilson with 1:57.72.

In the men’s long jump, Tajay Gayle will start his mission to ensure that his steady rise in the event over the past two seasons does not go unrewarded when he contests the first round of the event.

Gayle leaped to 8:30m and 8:32m this season to become the sixth longest jumper in the world. His coach, Stephen Francis, said that he has tweaked some things with his technique and believes if the former Papine High School student execute the new instructions, he should improve.

Jordan Scott will need to improve by .02m on his 17.08m personal best to secure an automatic qualification when he contests the men’s triple jump at 11:25 a.m.