NEW YORK CITY – Several English-speaking Caribbean athletes are expected to add flavor with a full program of sprints set to wet the appetite at the second World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meet in the United States this season on Saturday.
The men’s and women’s 100, 200, and 400 meters, as well as the sprint hurdles will ensure that the shorter events will be the focus of the USATF New York City Grand Prix at the Ichan Stadium on Randall’s Island.
Rising Surinamese talent Issam Asinga and Eric Harrison of Trinidad & Tobago will be hoping to upset American Noah Lyles in the men’s 200, which will hold pride of place as the final event on the schedule.
Lyles won this race in a stunning 19.61 seconds last year, and the two-time world champion heads to this meet off the back of a 100 victory in Paris and a world-leading 19.67 over 200 in Kingston earlier this month.
Ackeem Blake of Jamaica will come face-to-face with American Christian Coleman in a men’s 100 dash that is expected to hotly contested and will also include Jamaican Kadrian Goldson.
Coleman got the better of Blake by only three hundredths-of-a-second at this meet last year, but Blake turned the tables on the 2019 world champion at the USATF Los Angeles Grand Prix in May, winning in a personal best of 9.89.
Jamaican sprint darling Briana Williams will have her hands full when she will be the only non-American to face the starter for the women’s 100.
Her challengers include Olympic 200 bronze medallist Gabby Thomas, Aleia Hobbs, Melissa Jefferson, and Morolake Akinosun.
Three Jamaicans – Charokee Young, Junelle Bromfield, and Ashley Williams – will line up for the start of the women’s 400.
Thomas, whose personal best over this distance is 49.68, will lead the American challenge that also includes Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, the world and Olympic 400 hurdles champion.
McLaughlin-Levrone opened her outdoor season earlier this month at the Diamond League meet in Paris, where she finished second in a flat 400 in a personal best of 49.71.
Lynna Irby-Jackson with a PB of 49.80 and Young with a PB of 49.87 can also expect to challenge Thomas and McLaughlin-Levrone.
Another Jamaican trio – Sean Bailey, Zandrion Barnes, and Karyme Bartley – will carry the torch in the men’s 400, where Americans Trevor Stewart and Noah Williams appear their strongest rivals.
Neither Damion Thomas nor his fellow Jamaican Orlando Bennett are highly favored in the men’s 110 hurdles, where last year’s winner Devon Allen will be back trying to repeat or best the 12.84 – the third-fastest time in history – he ran to win.
Former world champion Danielle Williams of Jamaica and her compatriot, Olympic bronze medalist Megan Tapper will try to turn back the American challenge in the women’s 100 hurdles that features former world record-holder Kendra Harrison.
In the field events, Danniel Thomas-Dodd of Jamaica has been in fine form this season and will be out to upstage the competition along with Portious Warren of Trinidad & Tobago in the women’s shot putt.
The Jamaica pair of Travis Smikle and Kai Chang take on Oceania record-holder Alex Rose and Sam Mattis of the United States in the men’s discus, Thea Lafond of Dominica clashes with Keturah Orji in the women’s triple jump, the Bahamas pair of Donald Thomas and Shaun Milelr feature in the men’s high jump, and Erica Belvit of Jamaica will take part in the women’s hammer throw.
