The world and Olympic 400m champion Kirani James will run his second 400m of the 2018 season at the Aliann Pompey Invitational on Saturday, June 30.
James, who won the 2012 London Olympic and 2011 Daegu World titles, will face mostly Guyanese, including national record holder by Winston George, at the Leonora Stadium.
“I’m very excited, this is my first time in Guyana, so I’m so excited to compete, to really just see the crowd, the fans and learn a bit more about the Guyanese culture,” James said at the press conference on Friday, June 29.
Kineke Alexander of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Jamaicans Dominique Blake and Soniqua Walker, along with Kelly and Parris Garcia of Puerto Rico, will line up in the women’s 400m.
Event To Watch
The men’s triple jump is shaping to be the featured event with Guyanese Commonwealth Games champion Troy Doris and American champion Donald Scott the leading contenders.
Scott won the USA Championships in a season-best 17.37 last weekend, while Doris enters the competition with a personal best of 17.18, achieved in May this year.
Action in the women’s sprints will be hot.
Tahesia Harrigan-Scott of BVI, Jamaican Jonielle Smith, American Tawanna Meadows, Laverne Jones-Ferrette of the U.S. Virgin Islands and Trinidad and Tobago’s pair of Kai Selvon and Reyare Thomas are all entered in the women’s 100m.
In the half-lap event, Thomas, Jamaican Jodean Williams, Jones-Ferrette and Ashley Kelly from BVI are the top entries.
Trinidad and Tobago’s Kyle Greaux, a finalist in the men’s 200m at the Commonwealth Games earlier this year, and his compatriots Emmanuel Callender, along with Johnathan Farinha, George, Barbadian Burkheart Ellis and Yancarlos Martinez of Dominican Republic, will all face-off in the men’s half-lap.
The women’s 400m hurdles will see Jamaicans Rushel Cyalton and Nikita Tracey going up against Trinidad and Tobago’s Janeil Bellille and Purto Rican Grace Claxton.
