Black Immigrant Daily News
Jamaica’s world 200m gold medallist Shericka Jackson will be among the global champions who will be in action on Saturday as the World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold continues in Boston at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix.
Jackson, who opened her season at last Saturday’s Queen’s/Grace Jackson Invitational Meet at the National Stadium in Kingston by winning the 400m in 53.11, will contest the 60m.
The versatile Jackson will be looking to continue her strong start to her year following an impressive 2022 in which she won the world 200m title in 21.45, the second-fastest mark of all time, and improved her 60m PB to 7.04 in the final of the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade.
With two heats before the final, Jackson is joined on the roster by a world record-holder, but unusually that athlete doesn’t start as the dominant force.
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone is the current queen of the 400m hurdles, having taken the global mark in the event down to 50.68 and claimed Olympic and world crowns over the past couple of years. But in Boston the 23-year-old contests the 60m for the first time.
The race also includes world leader Aleia Hobbs, world indoor silver medallist Mikiah Brisco, plus Candace Hill, Melissa Jefferson, Cambrea Sturgis and Anthonique Strachan, as well as another hurdles specialist in Kendra Harrison.
USA’s 26-year-old Hobbs raced in the world 100m final in Oregon last year and she made another statement in Fayetteville last weekend, improving her 60m PB first to 7.05 and then to 6.98 to become the 13th woman to ever dip under seven seconds in the discipline.
World 200m champion Noah Lyles and Trayvon Bromell will battle in the men’s 60m which also features the Jamaican pair of Michael Campbell and Ackeem Blake.
Lyles joined Shericka Jackson in storming up the world 200m all-time list in Oregon, running a US record of 19.31 to retain his title. Now the 25-year-old will be looking to build on his season-opening 6.61 run in Gainesville as he hunts for a second consecutive win at this meeting after his 6.56 victory in 2022.
Challenging him will be USA’s 2016 world indoor champion Bromell, who claimed world 100m bronze in Oregon after a series of injury struggles. Lyles’ brother Josephus also features, as do their compatriots Demek Kemp and Kendal Williams plus Ghana’s Benjamin Azamati.
Jamaica’s Damion Thomas faces a tough field in the men’s 60m hurdles which features world record-holder Grant Holloway.
Holloway will be among the stars looking to put on a show on home soil in his first competition in the US since retaining his world 110m hurdles title in Oregon in July. The 25-year-old has a sensational indoor record to maintain – he was last beaten in an indoor sprint hurdles race in 2014, when he was 16 years old, and he has since extended his win streak to more than 60 races, including heats and semifinals.
That remarkable run includes one world indoor title-winning performance, achieved last year in Belgrade where he matched his own world record of 7.29, first set at the World Indoor Tour Gold meeting in Madrid in 2021.
His compatriot Trey Cunningham will be looking to break the tradition. Silver medallist behind Holloway at last year’s World Athletics Championships, the 24-year-old was also runner-up at the last edition of the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix, when he clocked 7.47 behind Holloway’s winning 7.37. The double NCAA champion opened his season with a 7.60 win in Fayetteville last weekend.
The field also includes USA’s NACAC champion Freddie Crittenden, who has already clocked 7.52 in Flagstaff and 7.53 in Iowa City this season along with compatriots Robert Dunning and Louis Rollins and Britain’s Joshua Zeller.
In the women’s 60m hurdles, Jamaica’s 2015 world gold medallist Danielle Williams, who won last year, lines up alongside Devynne Charlton of The Bahamas and Sharika Nelvis.
Schedule for Jamaicans
Women’s 60m3:10 pm – Shericka Jackson (Heat 1)
3: 27 pm – Men’s 60m hurdlesDamion Thomas (Heat 1)
4:02 pm – Women’s 500mLeah AndersonJanieve Russell
Men’s 60m4:08 pm – Michael Campbell (Heat 1)4:13 pm – Ackeem Blake (Heat 2)
4:20 pm – Women’s 60m final
4:28 pm – Men’s 400mJavon Francis
5:04 pm – Men’s 60m hurdles final
5:12 pm – Women’s 60m hurdlesDanielle Williams
5:36 pm – Men’s 60m final
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