Brown, Boldon head TT charge

World junior sprint champion Darrel Brown and Olympic and world 100-metre bronze medallist Ato Jabari Boldon will spearhead Trinidad and Tobago’s challenge at the 9th IAAF World Outdoor Championships, which will be held at the Stade de France, Paris, from August 18 to 22. Brown and Boldon as well as Marc Burns and Nicconor Alexander who together collected the Pan-American 4x100 metres relay bronze medal in Santo Domingo last Saturday, will be given the opportunity to improve their newly-established national record (38.53 secs). TT, with the speedy foursome of Burns, Jacey Harper, Boldon and Brown in that order, collected the sprint relay bronze in Montreal, Canada, two years ago. Reigning national sprint champion Harper missed out on the Pan-Am final because of a slight niggling injury but he will be fit again to strengthen the quartet going for gold. The immensely-talented Brown finished second and clocked a new personal 100-metre best of 10.08 secs in his first professional outing at the Pre-Fontaine Classic in Oregon, USA. He followed up with a victory and a third place in his next two pro-races before the Pan-American Games where he ran two blistering final lengths (semifinals and final) to ensure that TT bestride the medal podium.

This will be his first major outing to prove himself with his senior counterparts. Having claimed the world junior title at the Jamaica National Stadium last year August, Brown who is still under 19, will be racing among the world’s greatest collection of top class sprinters and it will definitely be a big test of his potential and character. Boldon and Julien Raeburn are entered for the 200 metres. However, TT’s new sporting heroine Candice Scott who picked the Pan-American Games hammer bronze medal will also be on show. Her national record of 69.79 placed her among the leading 20 throwers in the world for the 2003 season. Having eclipsed the former 1999 Pan-Am record of 65.36 m with the 4kg implement along with the current Cuban world leader and new Games gold medallist Yipsi Morena (74.25m) and Cuba’s Yunaika Crawford (69.57), the 22-year-old will be fighting to hurl the hammer beyond 70 metres to reach the final.

Ken Doldron, president of the National Amateur Athletics Association (NAAA) indicated that long jumper Onika James and shot put specialist Cleopatra Borel who achieved the “B” grade qualifying standards were shortlisted for the World Championships. However they will not be making the final team. National female sprint champion Fana Ashby who copped the Central American and Caribbean Games (CAC) gold medal in the 100 metres and also reached the Pan-Am Games 100 final will be the lone female entrant at the world’s premier athletics meeting.
NAAA’s senior vice-president George Commissiong is the team’s manager while Dr Ian Hypolite is the coach.