Jamaica’s Roje Stona competes in the men’s discus throw final during the Olympic Games at Stade de France in Saint-Denis on August 7, 2024.Photo: AFP
KINGSTON, Jamaica — Unless a late application is sent in by midnight Thursday, Olympic men’s discus throw champion Roje Stona will not be part of the Jamaican team to the World Athletics Championships to be held in Tokyo, starting in mid-September.
Up to late yesterday, the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association’s (JAAA) website did not list Stona among the 11 men who had submitted entries for the event to be contested at the National Junior and Senior Championships set to be held June 26-29 at the National Stadium.
Entries for the four-day championships closed at midnight, Sunday, June 15th, but there is a window for late entries that ends at midnight Thursday and applications will attract an extra $4000 fee.
Up to Wednesday, 724 athletes, including athletes whose countries will not have a national championship, were listed to take part— 387 seniors and 337 juniors, according to the JAAA website.
As per JAAA selection rules, with the exception of a bye, athletes must show up and compete at the championships which will be used to select the team that will represent Jamaica in Tokyo. There is another exception for athletes who are injured.
Efforts to contact the athlete and also to get responses from the JAAA proved futile.
Meanwhile, World Championships and Olympic Games finalist Jaydon Hibbert, who has not competed since last year’s Olympic Games in Paris, appeared to have submitted a late entry for the men’s triple jump.
Hibbert’s name was not on the website on Monday but was added on Wednesday.
A number of top athletes including Elaine Thompson-Herrah, the national record holder in the women’s 100m and up-and-coming sprinter Bryanna Lyston, both of whom are thought to be injured, were not listed in the entries up to Wednesday evening.
Seventy-two entries were received in the men’s 100m, including former Under 20 record holder Christopher Taylor, who is down for the sprint double.
Olympic Games silver medallist Kishane Thompson heads the list that also includes World Championships and Olympic Games finalist Oblique Seville, World Indoor bronze medallist Ackeem Blake and Olympic Games and World Championships medallist Yohan Blake.
Fifty-one-year-old Ian Weakly, a two-time Commonwealth Games bronze medallist in the men’s 400m hurdles in 2002 and 2006, is among the men’s 400m entries which also sees defending champion Antonio Watson, who has a bye.
Zanrion Barnes, Demar Francis, Jevaughn Powell and former champion Sean Bailey are also down for the men’s quarter-mile race.
Shericka Jackson, who is the defending champion in the women’s 200m, is down for only the 100m where she will be seeking a fourth straight national title.
Olympic Games finalist Tia Clayton and her twin Tina, the two-time World Under 20 champion, Shenese Walker, who ran 10.98 seconds earlier this month, five-time World Championship gold medallist Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, and Briana Williams are also down to compete as well as 100m hurdles champion Danielle Williams.