Thompson, Forte, Powell Advance At Jamaica Trials: Day 1

KINGSTON, Jamaica, Sporting Alert — Olympic sprint double champion Elaine Thompson and MVP Track Club training partner Julian Forte led the women’s and men’s 100m semi-final qualifiers at the Jamaica Trials at the National Stadium in Kingston, on Thursday night.

Thompson, who already has a bye into the IAAF World Championships in London, later this summer, having won the Diamond League last season, won her quarterfinal heat with a time of 11.20 seconds, running into a headwind of -1.3 m/s.

Thompson won the 100m and 200m at the Rio Olympic Games last summer, and it was believed she would have attempted another sprint double this year.

However, it is understood the 24-year-old is only entered for the 100m, which pretty much ruled her out of doing the double in London.

Meanwhile, Simone Facey also looked impressive when winning her heat in 11.22 seconds (-0.7 m/s) for the second-fastest time of the quarterfinals.

The other quarterfinal heat winners were Jonielle Smith, who won heat two with a time of 11.23 (-1.4 m/s) and Shashalee Forbes, who posted 11.34 (-1.7 m/s) to take the third heat.

A notable absentee from the 100m was the country’s most decorated sprinter and two-time Olympic 200m champion Veronica Campbell-Brown, who clocked 10.84 seconds 12-days-ago in Florida.

On the men’s side, Julian Forte navigated through a slight headwind to run 10.14 seconds and booked is spot into the semifinals with the fastest time.

The MVP representative got home ahead of Senoj-Jay Givans, who went 10.27 and Nickel Ashmeade, who ran 10.34 for third place. All three secured semis spots.

Also winning their respective quarterfinal heats at the Jamaica Trials were Odean Skeen (10.17, -1.0 m/s), Yohan Blake (10.21, -1.0 m/s) and Asafa Powell (10.22, -0.6 m/s).

Jevaughn Minzie ran 10.22 (-1.0 m/s) to also qualify for the semis.

In other results on Day 1 at the Jamaica Trials, Kemar Mowatt and Jaheel Hyde with times of 49.43 secs and 49.46, respectively, paced the finallists in the men’s 400m hurdles, while Shawn Rowe ran 49.50 for the third quickest.