Olympians to tussell for 400m Hurdles Crown- 400m Hurdles

Photo: Ristananna Tracey competing at the Racers Grand Prix Meet earlier this month finished third behind Americans Shamier Little and Dalilah Muhammad

The 2012 World Junior 400m hurdles champion and 2014 Commonwealth bronze medalist Janieve Russell, based on her early season performance wears the favourite hat, albeit in a wide open field and will aim to secure her second national title and another trip to a major international championship.

Russell finished fifth in the 2015 Beijing World Championship, and followed up with a seventh place showing at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games in what was a injury riddled season.

Her season best time of 54.14 seconds puts her fifth ranked behind four Americans on the IAAF rankings.

The 2016 national champion, Ristananna Tracey is back to defend her title and having started her 2017 season with some level of consistency will not relinquish her crown without a fight. Tracey whose season best of 54.56 seconds puts her just outside the top ten, will be hunting for a fourth consecutive World Championship ticket.

Leah Nugent who started competing for Jamaica in 2016 and manage to secure a sixth place finish at the Rio Olympic Games, will be searching for her first national title this weekend. She may however need to dip below the 54.45 seconds personal best, to see that dream a reality. Nugent enters the championship with a 54.88 seconds season best.

Kaliese Spencer, fresh from her recent doping allegation fiasco, will be hoping that things may favour her even more for the second time in a month as she aims for a sixth World Championship ticket.

Sprintect’s Rhonda Whyte 55.52 seconds and the older of the Tracey sisters , Niketa (55.32 seconds) as well as University of the West Indies’s Rushell Clayton (57.48 seconds) should complete the field.

Sashell Brown (56.20) and Yanique Haye (56.10) should be amongst two of the debutants at this year senior championship.

In an event that demands good timing and rhythm, the question is: who has got the timing right coming into Trials – Russell, Tracey, Nugent or someone else?
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