Ackera Nugent, in her first season with Arkansas after transferring from Baylor University, justified the move on Saturday when she ran the world-leading time in the 60m hurdles and then followed up by winning a national title as the NCAA Division 1 Indoor Championships in Alburquerque, New Mexico.

After storming to a new personal best of 7.72 to win her preliminary round heat, Nugent sped to victory in 7.73 over former world-leader Masai Russell, the pre-race favourite, who was a close second in a personal best 7.75.

“It wouldn’t be my first time in history but the first time in history at the collegiate level is a really great feeling to see that I was counted out this year and I came out and showed on the day that mattered most,” the World U20 record holder said in an interview afterwards.

Her performance helped Arkansas win the Ladies championship.

National junior record holder Bouwahjgie Nkrumie ran an easy 10.19 to lead all qualifiers to the final of the Boy’s Under-20 100m on Friday’s day one of the 2023 Carifta Trials at the National Stadium in Kingston.

Kingston College’s Nkrumie, who ran 10.02 to win silver at the 2022 World Under-20 Championships behind Botswanan World junior record holder Letsile Tebogo, easily won the fourth heat ahead of Camperdown’s Jason Lewis who ran 10.57 to also qualify for the final.

Jamaica College’s Hector Benjamin advanced second fastest with a personal best 10.31 to win heat two ahead of defending champion DeAndre Daley of Herbert Morrison who also advanced with 10.56.

Daley’s day was almost disastrous as he was left in the blocks at the start of the heat but, thankfully, recovered to seal his spot in the final.

Manchester High’s Javoon Blair qualified third fastest with a 10.43 effort to win heat one ahead of Steer Town Academy’s Omarion Barrett (10.49).

Also advancing to Saturday’s final were Kingston College’s Yourie Lawrence-Clarke (10.55) and Steer Town Academy’s Tay-Shawn Barnes (10.56).

The qualifiers for the Under-17 final were led by STETHS’ Tramaine Todd, Calabar’s Khamani Gordon and Jamaica College’s Dontae Watson.

Todd looked extremely impressive, producing 10.59 to win his heat while Gordon and Watson produced times of 10.68 and 10.72 to win their respective heats and advance.

Joining them in the final will be Jamaica College’s Nathaniel Martin (10.69), St. Jago High’s Detarje Morgan (10.72), Herbert Morrison’s Tavaine Stewart (10.82), Calabar’s Jamal Stephenson (10.89) and Kingston College’s Kyle Bodden (10.95).

World Under-20 silver medallist Serena Cole of Edwin Allen led all qualifiers to the final of the girls Under-20 equivalent.

Cole ran a comfortable 11.22 to easily win her heat ahead of St. Catherine High’s Kaycian Johnson who also qualified with 11.91.

Petersfield’s Alexis James also looked in good form, running 11.24 to win her heat ahead of MVP’s Tia Clayton (11.53), Edwin Allen’s Tonie-Ann Forbes (11.59) and William Knibb’s Lavanya Williams (11.61). Clayton, Forbes and Williams all advanced to the final alongside James.

Hydel’s Alana Reid, World Under-20 bronze medallist, won her heat in 11.55 to advance while Wolmers’ Mickayla Gardener (11.65) finished second and made it through.

Natrece East of Wolmers ran 11.70 to lead all qualifiers to the Under-17 final. She will be joined in the final by the Hydel pair Shemonique Hazle (11.80) and Camoy Binger (12.00), Wolmers’ Tiana Marshall (11.77), Immaculate Conception’s Shevi-Anne Shim (11.94), St. Jago’s Adora Campbell (12.02), Excelsior’s Janiela Williams (11.95) and St Mary High’s Shagay Sheppy (12.02).

Rocco Lopez and Aman Dhiman are joint leaders in the Boys 18 and Under category of the Jamaica Golf Association' junior trials at the end of the first day at the Caymanas Golf Club in St. Catherine on Friday.

Both golfers posted scores of two over par 74 but in contrasting fashion. Lopez, who is in his final year as a junior player, carded a birdie and two bogeys resulting in one over par 37 on the front and back nine. Dhiman, at 17, has another year as a junior. He shot three birdies and five bogeys and also posted one over par 37 on his front and back nines, respectively.

The next three golfers – Ryan Lue, Tenny Davis and Jerone Thomas -are tied for third on 10 over par 82s, eight shots behind the joint leaders.

Meanwhile, 16-year-old Noah Azan, scored 15 over par 87. Trey Williams, 16, who made the team in 2019, was just one stroke back on 16 over par 88.

Joshua Melville had a rough day on the course, scoring 45 over par 117 and is not likely to recover enough to get one of the four available spots on the team.

Vying to represent Jamaica in the upcoming Caribbean Junior Amateur Golf Championship in the Cayman Islands between July 3-8, the young golfers will tee off on Saturday at 9:00 am for the second of three rounds in the trials in the hot, windy conditions at the Caymanas Golf Course.

This year's junior trials are being conducted in two separate sessions.

The Boys 18 & Under will run from Friday, March 10 to Sunday, March 12 while the other age groups will take to the same course from March 24-26. This is due to the availability of the players as most of them are at school overseas.

Having signed a one-year contract in January 2023, Jamaica’s female cyclist Llori Sharpe will depart the island next week for Europe where she will join her teammates from Paraguay, Germany, Namibia, Rwanda, Algeria, and Austria on the CANYON//SRAM Generation Team set to participate in 21 races across Europe through to mid-September.

Six of the 21 events are two-to-six-day stage races covering 250 km to 700km.

2023 is expected to be a busy year for the young Jamaican as she is also expected to join the Jamaican team for the Pan American Road Championships from April 17-23 in Panama City. The Pan American Championships will qualify the top 19 male and female places for spots at the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile.

Since returning from Europe at the end of the 2022 season, Sharpe has spent the latter part of last year studying at the UWI Cave Hill Campus in Barbados. She will complete her final semester while in Europe. She returned home to Jamaica in December where she had been training in preparation for her first competitive assignment on March 26.

Sharpe earned the first two podium finishes for the CANYON team in March 2022.

The 2024 Concacaf W Gold Cup will be played between February 17 – March 10, 2024, in the United States, Concacaf announced on Wednesday.

Rising RallyCross star Fraser McConnell will drive for Lewis Hamilton’s X44 Vida Carbon Racing Team in season three of the Extreme E Championship, the Jamaican announced on Instagram on Wednesday.

The 24-year-old McConnell replaces French veteran rally and rallycross driver, Sebastien Loeb, who won the 2022 Extreme E alongside Cristina Gutiérrez.

“Reporting for duty @lewishamilton,” McConnell announced in his Instagram page on Wednesday.

“So excited for this new chapter in my career racing for @teamx44 in season three of @extremeelive lining up with @cris­_tortu. Big shoes to fill while replacing @sebloebofficiel but I am going to give it my all.”

McConnell is the most competitively successful Jamaican driver in the history of international rallycross racing—his championship victory in the 2019 Americas RallyCross Championship marked the first and only championship win by a Jamaican driver in the series’ history.

McConnell currently competes professionally Dreyer & Reinbold Racing in the Group E class.

He made his rallycross career debut in 2018, competing in North America's ARX2 series. In 2019, McConnell made his international racing debut with Olsbergs MSE. That same year, McConnell won the ARX2 championship, marking the first time in history for a Jamaican to lift the title.

In 2021, McConnell secured his first supercar victory, defeating three-time FIA world champion Johan Kristoffersson at the RallyX Nordic in Nysum, Denmark.

In February, McConnell when he won his second qualifying event at Stampede Park in Calgary, becoming only the third driver this season to claim three career top qualifier results in RallyCross following his success at Glen Helen in California in late 2022.

The X44 team was founded by seven- time Formula One World Champion, Sir Lewis Hamilton. The name "X44" was chosen due to Hamilton using the number on his Formula One car since 2014.

Khadija Shaw scored a hat-trick for Manchester City Women who came from a goal down to defeat Tottenham Hotspur 3-1 in their Women Super League clash at the Manchester City Academy Stadium on Sunday.

Jamaica and Manchester City Women forward Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw has signed a contract extension with Nike. The 26-year-old Shaw broke the news to her more than 70 thousand followers on Instagram on Thursday.

President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Thomas Bach, will, for the first time, set foot on the soil of Jamaica as he pays an official and historic visit to the island.

Mr Bach is set to arrive in Jamaica late Friday.

During his brief visit, the world governing Olympic body’s head will undertake a hectic schedule and President of the Jamaica Olympic Association, (JOA), Christopher Samuda, expects a very successful visit.

 “President Bach’s engagement will serve to deepen and embolden our continuing commitment to the values of Olympism as a way of life in sport while providing a welcomed opportunity for an interface with members of the local Olympic family,” said Samuda.

In July 2018, a petal from the flame of the cauldron of the 2012 London Olympic Games was established at the Sir Donald Sangster International Airport, in Montego Bay by the current JOA administration “as a landmark embodying the ideals of a global sport movement, giving earnest hope to the burning aspirations of Jamaica’s sportsmen and women in their pursuit of excellence and kindling the ambitious light of our youth to emulate” JOA Secretary General and CEO, Ryan Foster, said.

At the heart of the President Bach’s visit will undoubtedly be fraternal unity as the top brass of the JOA and IOC executives meet on common ground in advancing the Olympic agenda.

“A meeting of the minds in sport, a mutuality of purpose and will and commonality of values will characterize discussions and anchor outcomes” President Samuda stated.

President Bach, a Montreal 1976 Olympic Games gold medalist in the discipline of foil in fencing and a lawyer by profession, will depart the island with his delegation on March 5 on the way to the Dominican Republic after “what we have every confidence will be a milestone in Jamaica’s Olympic experience” Secretary General Foster concluded.

Jamaica’s five-time World 100m Champion Shelly Ann Fraser-Pryce says breaking the 100m World Record remains one of her goals as she enters the twilight of her career.

The 36-year-old has a personal best of 10.60 set at the Lausanne Diamond League in 2021 and is coming off a remarkable 2022 season that saw her run below 10.7 a record seven times, including a 10.67 to win her fifth World Championships gold medal in Eugene in July.

“I want to run 10.5 or 10.4. I’m working towards that, but I also don’t want it to be the end-all, be-all,” the three-time Olympic gold medallist said in an interview with NBC Sports.

“I’ll be satisfied knowing that I gave 100% towards that effort. Being able to push myself beyond something that a lot of people think is impossible has given me wings beneath my feet. I don’t want to limit myself. I want to think about potential and where I can go with that,” Fraser-Pryce added.

The Women’s 100m World Record currently stands at 10.49 set by American Florence Griffith-Joyner at the US Olympic Trials all the way back in 1988.

Since then, only Fraser-Pryce’s countrywoman, five-time Olympic gold medallist Elaine Thompson-Herah, has run below 10.6 when she clocked 10.54 to win at the Prefontaine Classic in 2021.

Jamaica’s ex-WBA world featherweight champion Nicholas ‘Axe Man’ Walters ended more than six years of semi-retirement with a dominant points win over Colombian Luis Diaz Marmol in Santa Marta, Colombia on Saturday night.

Returning in a weight class 14 pounds above his title-winning featherweight division, Walters earned the unanimous decision over local favourite Marmol in the eight-round super lightweight (140-pound) main event. The official scorecard read 80-72 and 78-74 twice in favour of the 37-year-old from Montego Bay.

“Marmol was very game but the overall experience and skill level of Walters was the difference,” Fightnews web site reported about the Panama-based Jamaican.

“He did not show much effects of ring inactivity as he was in complete control.”

With the result, Walters improves his ring record to 27 wins (21 kos) against one loss and one draw and the 29-year-old Marmol’s log dips to 19 wins (11 kos) against 17 losses.

Walters said recently he was encouraged to return to the ring by several trainers in Panama. He had been visiting the boxing gym to keep in shape but admits he “wasn’t really serious about fighting” until experts around the gym encouraged him to come out of retirement.

Walters became the first Jamaican ever to win a world boxing title at home when he beat Colombian Daulis Prescott for the WBA’s 126-pound belt in December 2012 at the National Indoor Sports Centre in Kingston.

Saturday night’s outing was his first since November 20, 2016, when he quit against Vasiliy Lomachenko after being dominated by the outstanding Ukrainian for seven rounds in Nevada, USA.

Walters had turned pro in 2008 after an amateur career that included bronze at the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games and two gold medals at the Caribbean Championships in 2005 and 2006. Within a few years he became one of the world’s most exciting fighters of the lower weight divisions after defeating big names like Nonito Donaire and Vic Darchinyan.

Akeem Blake and Tina Clayton won the respective 60m titles at the Gibson/McCook Relays at the National Stadium in Kingston on Saturday.

Clayton, a two-time World Junior 100m champion and in her first professional season, ran a personal best 7.02 to win the Women’s section ahead of Sashalee Forbes (7.03) and Kerrica Hill (7.10).

Remona Burchell won a windy B final in 7.04 ahead of Tia Clayton (7.05) and Jodean Williams (7.16).

Blake, a semi-finalist in the 100m at the 2022 World Championships, ran a personal best 6.42 to win the Men’s section ahead of Oblique Seville (6.42) and Zharnel Hughes (6.45). 2011 World 100m Champion Yohan Blake was fourth in 6.45.

More than 60 golfers teed-off at the Caymanas Golf Club in St Catherine for the first Jamaica Golf Association's (JGA) qualifier for 2023.

Tee-time was 7:30 am.

A special feature of this year's tournament is that the eight competitors in the Men & Men Senior 0-6 (WAGR) category will play 54 holes over the two days in a bid to gain world amateur golf ranking points.

The Jamaica Golf Association (JGA) got approval last year to play 54 holes over two days instead of the normal three days in order to gain ranking points from the R&A and the USGA (Royal & Ancient Golf Club, Unites States Golf Association).

This will allow them earn ranking points quickly and able to participate in more tournaments across the region and the world that are open to ranked golfers.

Two of the local golfers that have world golf ranking points are Justin Burrowes (347) and William Knibbs (741). Both were invited to play in this year's Latin America Amateur Golf Championships in January as the two highest ranked amateur golfers in Jamaica at the time.

In this weekend’s tournament Burrowes, who is the defending champion, expects to be tested by the format.

"I am looking forward to get going this weekend. I haven't played a 54-hole tournament in two days since this tournament last year so I am looking forward to the test,” he said.

“Expectation-wise I try to keep it very simple. I just want to go out and execute as best as possible and count the scores at the end.  It’s going to be long but I think it provides a good test and it will show me where my game is at and where I need to improve on.

“I feel like I have worked on some of the areas where I have been weak on in the last six months so I am looking forward to put that to the test in a tournament and we will see how that goes."

The other six golfers who will compete in the Men & Men Senior category are Sean Morris, Zandre Roye, Trey Williams, Tenny Davis, Robert Sterling and Wayne Chai-Chong.

Roye and Knibbs placed second and third, respectively, in last year's tournament.

The remainder of the golfers on the course will play 36 holes over the two days.

The will play in several categories including Men & Men Senior 0-6, Men & Men Senior 7-12, Men & Men Senior 13-24, Men Super Senior 0-12, Men Super Senior 13-24, Masters, Junior Boys 18 and Under, Junior Boys 14-15 and Junior Boys 11-13.

Jodie Mun-Barrow is the defending Ladies champion.

Despite another decent display, Jamaica’s Reggae Girlz suffered their third straight defeat in the FFA Nations Cup going down 3-0 to hosts Australia on Wednesday at the Newcastle International Sports Centre.

The victory for Australia meant that Australia would win the trophy in the four-team tournament that also involved Spain and the Czech Republic.

Goals from Katrina Gorry, Alex Chidiac and Caitlin Foord settled the matter for Australia against the Caribbean team that played well enough but for the second of three matches, failed to find the net.

The Reggae Girlz started well with Jody Brown, Spence and Kayla McCoy-McKenna posing threats that Australia managed to thwart. In defence, especially in the first quarter of the match, Jamaica were organized, repelling Australia’s attacks with aplomb.

Australia, however, broke the deadlock in the 28^th minute with a 25m rocket from Gorry that flew past Rebecca Spencer in the Jamaica goal.

Growing in confidence, the hosts took a 1-0 lead into the half-time break.

Australia would double their lead in the 56^th minute after a brilliant build up that saw Gorry take the ball to the byline before pulling it back to Chidiac who beats two defenders and power the ball into the roof of the net from five metres.

Australia sealed the issue in the 69^th when Foord and Sam Kerr execute a 1-2 pass at the edge of the box around Jamaica’s defence after which Foord curled one from 20m past Spencer.

Jody Brown was denied a consolation three minutes from time when goalkeeper Arnold parried her shot from just inside the box around the upright.