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• Next time I touch the 100m: Kerley has sights set on Bolt’s world record

  2022 World 100m champion Fred Kerley has his sights set on Usain Bolt’s 15-year-old 100m World Record.

  In fact, the 29-year-old says that the next time he does the event, he will become the fastest man ever.

  “World record next time I touch the 100m,” Kerley said on Twitter on Tuesday.

  Usain Bolt’s mark stands at an incredible 9.58 done to win his maiden World Championship gold medal at the Berlin World Championships on August 16, 2009.

  Bolt is the only man to ever run faster than 9.60 with Tyson Gay and Yohan Blake the only other men to run sub 9.70.

  Gay and Blake both have a personal best of 9.69 to be joint-second on the all-time list.

  Kerley, one of the only athletes ever to go sub-10 in the 100m, sub-20 in the 200m and sub-44 in the 400m, has a personal best of 9.76 done at the World Championships in 2022 in Eugene where he went on to claim 100m gold.

  His time puts him in a three-way tie for sixth all-time alongside countrymen Christian Coleman and Trayvon Bromell.

  Asafa Powell (9.72), Justin Gatlin (9.74) and Ferdinand Omanyala (9.77) make up the top ten.

  This season, Kerley has competed four times in the 100m. He opened his season with a win at the Hurricane Invitational on March 16 in Coral Gables, Florida with 10.03 and followed that up at the same venue on April 6 in the Hurricane Alumni Invitational with 10.11 to also come out on top.

  Kerley then competed at the season’s first two Diamond League events in Xiamen and Suzhou on April 20 and 27, respectively. He first ran 10.17 to finish second in Xiamen before running 10.11 for third in Suzhou.

  He most recently competed at the Jamaica Athletics Invitational on May 11 where he ran 20.17 to finish second in the men’s 200m.

• Corinaldi Avenue Primary race to 13-point lead on penultimate day of INSPORTS/Devon Biscuits Primary Schools Western Athletics Championships

  Defending champion Corinaldi Avenue Primary of St James raced to a 13-point lead on the penultimate day of the INSPORTs/Devon Biscuits Primary Schools Western Athletics Championships on Friday.

  After 11 finals, Corinaldi surged to 86.5 points ahead of Black River Primary of St Elizabeth on 73.5 and Howard Cooke Primary of St James sitting in third spot on 54 points. Brompton Primary of St Elizabeth are fourth with 50 points while Glen Stuart Primary completed the top five on 48 points.

  The records continued to tumble but the star of the day was Santana Brown of Brompton who won two events the Girls Cricketball Open with 42.04m and returned later to capture the high jump with a record leap of 1.37m.

  Her teammate Keneek Grove won the Boys’ Cricket ball Open with a record 64.67m ahead of Corinaldi’s Al-Jay Levy with 63.50m.

  Brompton won three events and took an early while Howard Cooke won three relays all in record fashion. In fact, seven of the eight relay records were broken.  

  Howard Cooke won the Girls’ Class Four 4x100 in 1:02.49 and the Girls’ Class Two in 54.75, both in record fashion. They also won Boys’ Class One in 52.85 just outside the record of 52.19 held by Barracks Road since 2023.

  Corinaldi Avenue won two relays in record style, the Boys’ Class Four in a record 58.05 and the Boys’ Class Three in 55.35.

  Glen Stuart also won two relays in record fashion capturing the Girls’ Class Three 4x100 in 58.29 and the Boys’ Class Two in 55.25. Barracks Road Primary won the Girls Class One in a record 53.55.

  There will be 29 finals tomorrow as teams fight to book their spots in the all-island finals dubbed the Nationals on May 20-22. Lyssons of St Thomas won the Eastern Championship and Naggo Head of St Catherine won the Central Championship.

  The National champion will walk away with $600,000. Lyssons are the defending champions.

• Still alive: Bolt pleased with Ja's male sprinting resurgence; hopeful Seville will medal in "wide open" men's 100m in Paris

  Take it from the incomparable Usain Bolt that the race for the men’s 100m title at this summer’s Paris Olympic Games will be wide open, as he is yet to identify any clear favourite to stake a claim on the coveted gold medal.

  Bolt, whose words carries the weight of his unparalleled legacy, gave his views on the possible Olympic outcome, as he also shared thoughts on the progress of male sprinting in Jamaica, which he believes remains alive with the emergence of Rohan Watson, Oblique Seville, Ackeem Blake, Ryiem Forde, and Kadrian Goldson, in particular.

  Seville has been the main protagonist on that list, as he has consistently knocked at the door of a global 100m medal over the years. He placed fourth at both the 2020 Olympic Games and last year’s World Championships.

  The 23-year-old’s rise from promising newcomer to bona fide contender has captured the imagination of Jamaican track and field enthusiasts at home and abroad. With blistering speed and unwavering determination, Seville has carved out a name for himself as one of Jamaica's most promising talents, and along with the others, carries the hopes of a nation known for its sprinting prowess.

  “I think these athletes represent our chances, but it is all about execution. I think over the past years, it (Jamaica’s male sprinting) has been struggling, but I do think that Oblique has been keeping it alive,” Bolt, the ambassador for Red Stripe’s ‘Guh Fi Gold and Glory’ campaign, told journalists during the event’s launch in Half Way Tree on Wednesday.

  “He has made all the finals so far; it is just for him to now get in the top three. And I think it's just consistency. I think the one thing with Oblique is that he always gets injured, but hopefully he can be consistent this season and stay on the right path and he'll be fine. So, I'm just looking forward to seeing them,” the iconic sprinter added.

  

  Though American Noah Lyles, who copped the sprint double at last year's World Championships, has been a dominant force, his compatriots Fred Kerly, silver medallist at the 2020 Games in Tokyo, and Christian Coleman are also prominent contenders, while the young generation of Jamaican sprinters –Watson, Seville, Blake, and Goldson –have also entered the conversation.

  Great Britain’s Zharnel Hughes, and Botswana's Letsile Tebogo, are also expected to be in the mix in Paris, while Italy’s Marcell Jacobs and Canada’s Andre De Grasse, the gold and bronze medallists from the 2020 Games in Tokyo, are yet to enter the fray ahead of the global multi-sport showpiece.

  While it is still early days yet, Bolt, an eight-time Olympic gold medallist and the world’s fastest man over 100m and 200m, expressed optimism about Seville’s Olympic Games medal prospects, as he believes the young sensation has proven that he can match strides with those names on the list.

  “Let's see what happens. I think it's early. No one is doing anything, and I haven't seen anything impressive so far. So, I think it is still wide open. I am really hoping Oblique can break into the top three this time around. I think he has always worked hard over the years, and he is always in the final and always doing well. So hopefully, he will break into the top three,” Bolt said.

  On that note, Bolt, who is looking forward to a second Olympic Games as a spectator since his retirement in 2017, believes the athletes stand ready to write the next chapter in the country’s storied history of success.

  “Overall, we all have high hopes. The throwers, jumpers, everybody. Everyone is doing well, and you can see where they are stepping up. The medal tally will be good as always. Jamaica always shows up. We always get at least five medals, and I think we are aiming to get eight to 10 medals in Paris,” he shared.

  “I think the athletes will (maintain their performance). Jamaica is always up there. We are still the sprint capital of the world, and I think we will continue to dominate,” Bolt ended.