Early Season Classic on tomorrow

Mar 13, 2020 Sports

Aubrey Hutson, Head of the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG), has confirmed with Kaieteur Sport that all roads leads to the National Track and Field Center (NTFC), Leonora, for the ‘Early Season Classic’ Track and Field Meet, tomorrow and Sunday.

Leslain Baird is aiming for the 85m Olympics qualifying distance.

Anisha Gibbons

The two-day event will feature track and field events on both days with Guyana’s top youth and senior athletes being pitted against each other for top honours. In an invited comment, Hutson explained that all the logistics are in place for this weekend’s showdown that will serve as the third and final qualifier for the 49th Caribbean Free Trade Association (CARIFTA) Games set for this Easter weekend in Bermuda, over 100 athletes have registered for this weekend’s action. A total of 12 Guyanese have already qualified for next month’s CARIFTA Games namely, Anisha Gibbons, Attoya Harvey, Seon Booker, Okenoko Pascal, Wesley Tyndall, Randy Hamilton, Adriel Austin, Keliza Smith, Annalisa Barclay, Princess Browne and Trevon Hamer.
This weekend’s action will be headlined by the likes of local sprint aces Akeem Stewart and Davin Fraser along with National long jump record holder Emanuel Archibald who is also the reigning 100m Champion.

Akeem Stewart

Archibald, who is currently a student-athlete at the University of the West Indies (UWI) Mona Campus in Jamaica arrived in Guyana this week after an impressive showing at the UWI Mona’s 62nd annual intramural event last weekend where he won the long jump event.
Archibald’s long jump record of 8.12m that was achieved at the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association’s (JAAA) All Comers Meet in May 2019 will not be enough to see him qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics but the former basketball player is confident that he can make the 8.22m qualifying standard with a little extra effort.
All eyes will also be on Leslain Baird who is continuing his journey back to full fitness in the Javelin throw this weekend. The national javelin men’s record holder missed the back end of the last season due to a hemorrhoids condition and is slowly getting back to a 100% but event at 80%, Baird has proven to be better than the rest with decent performances at three development meets held so far this year.
Early in the season, Baird had shared with Kaieteur Sport that he is aiming to make the 85m Olympics qualifying standard, and although it’s some distance away from his personal best of 78.65m that was good enough to see him cop a silver medal at the 2018 South America Championships in Bolivia, he will still give it his all.

National men’s 100m and Long Jump Champion Emmanuel Archibald (422) will be in action this weekend.

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