MOSCOW – Five athletes from the English-speaking Caribbean will contest finals on today’s sixth day of the IAAF World Athletics Championships at the Luzhniki Stadium.
Jamaicans Kimberly Williams and Nickiesha Wilson, Trinidad and Tobago’s Jehue Gordon, along with Bahamian pair of Ryan Ingraham and Donald Thomas, are those down for the medal rounds.
Gordon will contest the men’s 400m hurdles final while Wilson will be in the women’s event.
Gordon said the medals were for anybody. “Nobody’s name is written on the medal as yet, it’s anybody’s own and I will give it my best.”
Wilson noted anything could happen in a race. “I am going there with the mentality that I’m going for a medal.”
Williams, who qualified for today’s triple jump final by jumping 14.36 on her second attempt on Tuesday, said she wanted to get on the podium.
“I don’t want to come here and just compete, I want to challenge for a medal, do all my best, I want to go out and put out my best effort,” she said.
“This is my first World Championships final and I just need to continue to show improvement,” Williams added.
In the other final, set for the 11 a.m. (Barbados time), Ingraham and Thomas, both Bahamians, will contest the men’s high jump final.
Thomas, who said he just wanted to go out there and represent his country well, believes “once I go out there and perform to the best of my ability, everything should be okay”.
Also today, 100 metres champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce will start her quest for the women’s sprint double. She will run in the fourth heat along with Trinidad and Tobago’s Kai Selvon.
Kineke Alexander of St Vincent and The Grenadines, Jamaicans Anneisha McLaughlin and Patricia Hall, Bahamians Anthonique Strachan, Nivea Smith and Shaunae Miller and Karene King of British Virgin Islands are the other Caribbean women in the 200m.
Jamaica’s Natoya Goule will make her debut at this level, also in the morning session.
On yesterday’s scaled down day, Jamaica’s long jumper Demar Forbes, the only Caribbean athlete in action, booked his final round ticket.
Forbes soared 7.96 metres on his final attempt in qualifying to move into seventh place and earn his spot in the final.
?Meanwhile, Bahamian athlete Anthonique Strachan is hoping to make an impact.
Strachan, the 2012 World Junior sprint double champion, made her World Championships debut as a 17-year-old two years ago.
“I am more confident this year than in Daegu (2011 World Championships in South Korea) and London (2012 Olympics) that I will make it to the final,” said Strachan, who turns 20 on August 20.
Strachan is the fifth fastest over the half lap event this year with 22.32 seconds. (CMC)