POTHOLE ON ROAD TO TOKY0

Jamaica men’s 4x100 teams has setback in Olympic qualifying bid as meet gets scrapped

SENIOR ATHLETES hoping to get another chance to prepare for the Olympic Games this summer will have to wait another weekend as the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association’s (JAAA) Road To Tokyo Meet set for the National Stadium today at 8:00 a.m. has been cancelled.

The highlight of the day was to be the running of a men’s international 4x100m relay as Team Jamaica was hoping to use the race to better its world ranking.

Jamaica did not compete at the World Athletics Relay Games in Poland last weekend, where the eight finalists got automatic selection for Tokyo, and their time of 38.15 seconds, which was done in the semi-finals at the World Athletics Championships in Doha, is ranked 11th in the world.

JAAA President Garth Gayle says that the event was being staged so that the Jamaicans could have attempted to qualify.

“For the first in a long time, we have assembled our coaching staff and a relay group to prepare locally so that they can work on their changes in a bid to improve on their time,” Gayle told The Gleaner on Friday, ahead of the cancellation.

Jamaica would have entered two relay teams comprised of several overseas athletes who are training locally.